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Hundreds of children are dying needlessly from cancer or being left with debilitating conditions because life-saving drugs are only tested on adults, health experts have warned.
Since 2007, of the 28 new cancer drugs which have been given European approval, half cannot be licensed for children because youngsters were not included in their trials.
Pharmaceutical companies argue that it is pointless testing drugs for adult cancers, such as lung cancer, on children because they do not develop them in childhood.
But oncologists say that the underlying genetic triggers are the same and so the new treatments would be beneficial.
The lung cancer drug Gefitinib, for example, which has been approved by Nice, targets mutations of the EGFR gene. The same mutations appear in the childhood cancer neuroblastoma, which affects around 100 children each year in Britain and the drug is likely to be effective, but cannot be prescribed.
The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) in London is urging the EU to change the law so that drug companies are forced to test all new medications on youngsters.
"Kids are dying," said Professor Alan Ashworth, Chief Executive of the ICR. "We are getting to a situation where there are effectively no new drugs for children, and we are no longer advancing in the treatment of childhood cancer.
Comment: The 'cure' is worse than the disease:
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