The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has not issued any guidance on monoclonal antibody therapy for the treatment of neuroblastoma.
In the absence of NICE guidance, it is a matter for local national health service organisations to decide whether to fund a particular drug or treatment. The NHS Constitution gives patients the right to expect local funding decisions on the availability of drugs and treatments to be made rationally following consideration of the available evidence.
Information on the number of patients with neuroblastoma (prevalence) is not held centrally, nor has any estimate been made.
However, the following table shows the number of children and young people aged 19 and under diagnosed with an unspecified adrenal gland cancer, which could include neuroblastoma, during 2007. This is the latest year for which incidence data are available.
Age of person diagnosed (years) Number of cancers diagnosed Less than 1 7 1-4 19 5-9 5 10-14 0 15-19 4— 1 Adrenal gland, unspecified cancer (including neuroblastoma) is coded as C74.9 in the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10). 2 Based on boundaries as of 2009. 3 Newly diagnosed cases registered in 2007. 4 For young people aged 15-19, the reported incidence levels indicate less than three individuals. Due to this small cell count, the data have been suppressed to avoid the risk of disclosure. Source: Office for National Statistics
The Department's National Institute for Health Research is undertaking translational research specifically concerned with neuroblastoma at two of its Biomedical Research Centres; and via its national cancer research network is currently supporting some nine studies into the condition. The Department has additionally invested over £1 million in experimental cancer medicine centres specifically to support early-phase clinical trials for children with cancer, including trials for children with neuroblastoma. It is not possible to disaggregate the cost of these research activities.