We've been making recommendations on the clinical and cost-effectiveness of cancer drugs through our technology appraisal guidance since 2000.
Since 2000, we have published:
464 technology appraisals on cancer drugs.
These have resulted in:
534 individual recommendations on cancer drugs.
Each appraisal can have 1 or more recommendation and can contain more than 1 type of recommendation.
This page was last updated: 12 April 2024
Cancer recommendations by type
Appraisal recommendations are prepared by independent committees. There are 5 types of recommendation they can make.
Recommendations on cancer drugs made by technology appraisal committees since 2000
We recommend the majority of cancer drugs
78% of our recommendations on cancer drugs have been positive (recommended, optimised, or recommended for the Cancer Drugs Fund).
This means the committee appraising the drug approved its use in line with the drug's licence or with some modifications.
Recommendations could not be made for 70 technology appraisals in the absence of a submission from the company (known as a non-submission).
Cancer appraisals published each year
Technology appraisal cancer guidance published since 2000
We're appraising more cancer drugs than ever before
All new cancer drugs and significant new licensed indications for cancer drugs are now referred automatically to NICE for appraisal. This was agreed as part of the new arrangements for managing the Cancer Drugs Fund from 2016.
Impact of the 2016 Cancer Drugs Fund
In July 2016 the Cancer Drugs Fund was relaunched to enable wider and faster access to cancer drugs. We now have the option to recommend a drug for use in the Cancer Drugs Fund. This means the drug can be funded while more information is gathered on its effectiveness. The result is that more people can access drugs that would have been unavailable.
Find out more about the Cancer Drugs Fund on the NHS England website.
Positive cancer appraisal recommendations - before and after the relaunch of the Cancer Drugs Fund
We've adapted our processes to approve more cancer drugs
The new arrangements for managing the Cancer Drugs Fund have allowed our committees to recommend more cancer drugs than ever before.
This means more patients are now able to access the most promising new cancer drugs.
Explore our cancer appraisal recommendations
Technology appraisal cancer recommendations (Excel document)
For each recommendation, you can find:
- the appraisal number
- year of publication
- appraisal process
- the name of the technology
- the disease or condition for which the technology has been appraised
- how NICE has categorised this recommendation
- any comments.
An individual appraisal may contain more than one recommendation. In some appraisals, many technologies have been considered together, and a number of recommendations made. Each recommendation is summarised separately.