The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) yesterday announced that for bowel cancer sufferers, it plans to continue denying the use of the drug Avastin.

A bowel cancer specialist for 16 years stated that NICE's rulings as compared to those of developed countries were completely at odds.

Bowel cancer in the UK is diagnosed in one person every 15 minutes that means about 35, 000 new cases happen every year.

Avastin that has been disapproved for treating bowel cancer sufferers despite cases where there has been an improvement in extending the lives of such people.

Experts stated that the scatter-gun approach of chemotherapy which kills healthy as well as cancerous cells was avoided by Avastin. The protein involved in supplying tumours with blood is what is focused at by the drug.

Tumours that have spread from the bowel to other parts of the body can be shrunk and removed by Avastin.

The most important positive point of Avastin is that it is a tolerable treatment as there is only treatable rise in the blood pressure of those at the drug.