Review of NICE Technology Appraisal Guidance No’s 61; Capecitabine and tegafur uracil for metastatic colorectal cancer and 176; Cetuximab for the first line treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer

The planned date for review of TA 176; Cetuximab for the first line treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer is August 2012. TA 61; Cetuximab for the first line treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer is currently on the list of static guidance and therefore does not have a specified review date. 

The review date relates to the time at which the Institute decides whether sufficient new evidence has emerged for the Appraisal Committee to be asked to undertake an update of the existing guidance. Because NICE has been asked to develop a clinical guideline for the diagnosis and management of colorectal cancer, and both of these appraisals are relevant to that work, we have decided to look at this evidence now to inform production of the clinical guideline.

The Institute has carried out a search for information relevant to these appraisals, and believes that it is appropriate to recommend the following:

• There is no new evidence available for TA61 and it can therefore be incorporated into the on-going clinical guideline for the diagnosis and management of colorectal cancer that is due to be published in October 2011.
• We propose that TA176 should not be incorporated verbatim into the on-going clinical guideline as the results of the further subgroup analyses of the COIN study could potentially lead to the need to update the recommendations in the future. Therefore, we propose it should instead be cross-referenced.

In order to be completely confident that this is appropriate, we are asking all relevant consultees and commentators, to inform us of any evidence which would suggest that a review would be beneficial.  Please see appendix A for a full list of the organisations we have contacted. 

April 2011