According to the latest regulation from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), a new life extending drug for people suffering from liver cancer should not be accessible on the NHS.

Sorafenib, popularly known as Nexavar, manufactured by Bayer, has been known to prolong the lives of people with a fatal form of liver cancer.

Germany, Spain, France, Romania and Italy have already granted financial support for the drug. NICE is presently considering the use of sorafenib for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) for patients, for whom therapies and surgery in the region the cancer arises fails or is not suitable. However, NICE does not recommend sorafenib.

HCC is one of the most common types of liver cancer – that originates in the liver. Surgery is the only potentially healing treatment for HCC, but just a small amount of people will be entitled to this.

A spokesperson from NICE said that they felt let down for not being able to recommend sorafenib for patients. It does not even offer adequate benefits to the patients to justify its high cost.

Liver disease is greatly related to the lifestyle factors and operations are costly. Thus it is ideal to go for a good health insurance policy that can provide medical cover for numerous diseases.