National Institute for Health and Care Excellence
Approved cancer drugs and treatments such as radiotherapy and chemotherapy are funded by the NHS without any financial contribution being taken from the patient. Where NICE has approved a treatment, the NHS must fund it. But not all treatments have been assessed by NICE and these treatments are usually dependent on local NHS decision making. In the case of cancer the Cancer Drugs Fund was set up in 2011 after complaints about NICE decisions on new and expensive cancer drugs with limited benefits. Treatment for fertility problems are approved but not always funded by clinical commissioning groups and they may cap the number of rounds.
Neutron capture therapy of cancer
Neutron capture therapy (NCT) is a noninvasive therapeutic modality for treating locally invasive malignant tumors such as primary brain tumors and recurrent head and neck cancer. Briefly summarized, it is a two-step procedure: "first", the patient is injected with a tumor-localizing drug containing the non-radioactive isotope boron-10 (B) that has a high propensity or cross section (σ) to capture slow neutrons. The cross section of the B is many times greater than that of the other elements present in tissues such as hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. In the "second" step, the patient is radiated with epithermal neutrons, the source of which is either a nuclear reactor or, more recently, an accelerator. After losing energy as they penetrate tissue, the neutrons are absorbed by the capture agent, which subsequently emits high-energy charged particles that can selectively kill tumor cells that have taken up sufficient quantities of B.