In addition to advanced pancreatic cancer patients in England being denied the life extending drug Abraxane, there has been more bad news with NICE’s decision not to offer a new treatment, Onivyde®, or pegylated liposomal irinotecan, for routine NHS use. Research has indicated that, on average, some patients could live c2months longer when treated with the drug. This decision is a hard one for pancreatic cancer patients to hear. If these drugs were available when my husband was diagnosed, we would have jumped at the chance of having more time together. Two extra months for us would have meant spending one last Christmas with Kevin and also sharing one last birthday with him. Pancreatic cancer has seen very little progress in over 40 years as is borne out by my husband's family history – Kevin’s death and his mum’s were 40 years apart yet the medics could offer Kevin no better a chance of survival than they could his mum 40 years earlier. For patients to be denied these new drugs is hugely disappointing. Fair access to life extending treatments should be available, particularly given that the treatment options for pancreatic cancer are already limited and the majority of patients are diagnosed when their disease is at an advanced stage – the stage where these drugs could give a patient more time with their families. When you consider that many pancreatic cancer patients will survive only months from diagnosis, an extra two months is a considerable extension to their lives. I know that we were “lucky” – Kevin survived 20 months post diagnosis which is a considerable amount of time in pancreatic cancer terms but we were always conscious that the clock was ticking and our time left together was limited. All cancer patients deserve the right to have their lives extended if there is a drug available to do that and it is hugely disappointing that, once again, pancreatic cancer patients are being denied this opportunity.