The health care system in the United Kingdom is making more treatment options available to terminally ill patients.

In England and Wales, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) decides which treatments will be made available under the state-funded National Health Service.  Until recently, NICE refused to approve the use of any drug costing more than £30,000 ($44,000) for each extra year of good health attributable to the drug.

On January 2, NICE issued new guidelines to approve, under certain circumstances, life-extending drugs that cost as much as £80,000 ($118,000) per extra year of good health.  The previous £30,000 threshold may now be exceeded when a patient is expected to live less than 24 months, strong evidence exists that the costly treatment could extend life by three months, and no less expensive treatment can offer similar benefits.

The decision is a surprising reversal.  Just two months ago, NICE announced that it would not fund the myeloma treatment Revlimid (lenalidomide) because of its £54,000 ($79,000) per-year cost. (Read about the November NICE announcement here.)  The Revlimid rejection rekindled public debate about NICE's funding criteria, as it was just the latest in a series of controversial NICE decisions related to important new cancer drugs.

Macmillan Cancer Support, a U.K. based organization that provides support for cancer patients, estimated that 10,000 cancer patients will benefit from this new policy each year.

Further details about the new NICE guidelines can be found at The Argus, and the full guidelines can be found on the NICE Web site.