Principle 5 states that:

"An efficient and effective mechanism is needed to permit access to unapproved and experimental therapies for patients who have exhausted other available possibilities."

Specifically

• In the United Kingdom, in 2008, the Department of Health gave approval to a network of 19 hospital units where terminally ill cancer patients can volunteer to participate in trials of experimental cancer therapies that may be years away from approval.
  
  
• It should be easy, not difficult, for patients who have run out of other options to gain access to investigational drugs whenever possible – with appropriate clinical input.

Click here to read the original Cancer Patient Statement of Principles in full.