Ways to access treatment

Your doctor can make an individual funding request (IFR) application. To apply for this, your doctor needs to show that:

• your clinical situation is different from other patients with the same cancer

• you are more likely to benefit from the treatment than other patients

The decision is only based on your clinical situation. This means that your doctor only considers factors linked to your health and cancer. They do not consider other factors, such as your work or family life.

This process can take some time. Doctors don’t always succeed in getting treatments funded this way.

Individual funding requests have different names in each part of the UK:

• England and Northern Ireland - Individual Funding Request (IFR)

• Scotland - Peer Approved Clinical System (PACS Tier 2)

• Wales - Individual Patient Funding Request (IPFR)

The application process and rules may vary depending on which country you live in. Your doctor can tell you if they think an IFR is suitable in your situation. They can explain what happens.

The EAMS aims to give people with life threatening or severely debilitating conditions access to promising new medicines. Doctors can use the scheme when no other treatment is available for these conditions.

Medicines within the EAMS haven't gone through the full licensing process. They might still be part of ongoing research, or they may be waiting for a license. This means that there may still be some uncertainties about how safe these medicines are. Researchers also wouldn't know yet how well they work, and what side effects they may cause.

This scheme applies to Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and England.

Read more about the EAMS

The Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) is available for patients in England. There is a similar arrangement for people in Northern Ireland. Access to new medicines is slightly different in Scotland and Wales. You will need to talk to your specialist about this. They make the application for you.

England and Northern Ireland

The CDF is part of the NICE process for reviewing new cancer medicines. NICE aims to review all new cancer medicines within 90 days of them getting a licence for use in England.

NICE sometimes gives new medicines conditional approval. This is when a medicine shows promising results. But NICE need more evidence about how well it works to know if it’s a good use of NHS money. The medicine might be available from the CDF for a short period of time. This is often around two years until NICE publishes its final decision.

Health and Social Care Services in Northern Ireland follows NICE cancer drugs fund decisions.

Scotland

Scotland has a ‘new medicines fund’. It pays for some medicines for patients with rare or end of life conditions. The SMC does not yet have the option to conditionally approve new medicines in the same way NICE can.

Wales

The Welsh Government has the 'new treatment fund’ for Wales. It aims to speed up patient access to new treatments. It includes treatments that NICE recommend for use in the CDF in England.

Find out about the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF)

You might be able to have treatment as part of a clinical trial. Your specialist can tell you more about this. They may know of trials looking at a specific treatment for people in your situation. You can also search for clinical trials on our clinical trials database.

Clinical trials database

You might have to travel to a different hospital to take part in a trial.

Bear in mind that researchers have to be very specific about who can join a clinical trial. This is called the 'eligibility criteria'. You can't join a trial if you don’t meet the entry criteria that have been set.

Find out how to join a clinical trial

You might be able to pay for treatment or use private health insurance if:

• one of the organisations such as NICE has not recommended it for NHS use

• it is a treatment that hasn’t completed testing in clinical trials, or is not tested for your cancer type

All new treatments have to go through clinical trials. Only then can we say that a new treatment works better than the existing treatments for that cancer type.

Talk to your specialist before you pay for a treatment. Ask them about the possible risks and benefits of having a treatment that might not be recommended or fully researched. Ask what the alternatives are.

Paying privately for cancer treatments can cost many thousands of pounds. So do ask about the costs in advance. 

You pay for the cost of the treatment while the NHS continues to pay for the rest of your care. There is more information about this on the NHS website.

Find out more about paying for additional treatment and the NHS