KIDNEY cancer patients across the North-East last night won the right to a life-extending wonder drug - but for hundreds of others the fight goes on.

After months of campaigning, health trusts across the region agreed to fund the drug Sutent for patients.

The apparent U-turn came only a day after The Northern Echo revealed how County Durham cancer patient Kathleen Devonport, 64, had won her personal battle to receive the drug on the NHS.

The decision means that patients in the North-East and Cumbria can now be prescribed the £30,000-a-year drug if their NHS consultants recommend it. But the move served only to highlight the iniquitous state of regional funding for cancer drugs.

Although kidney cancer sufferer Barbara Selby, from Richmond, North Yorkshire, lives only a few miles from the County Durham border, she will not be able to get Sutent on the NHS.

Because she has a North Yorkshire address, the new ruling does not apply to her.

Ironically, her consultant, who is backing her application to North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust (PCT) for funding for Sutent, is based at the James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough, where the drug is now available.

Clare Whiteside, Mrs Selby's daughter, said: "I suppose this is a step forward and some people will benefit.

"What I don't understand is why my mum can't have this drug now. We are just going to have to fight a bit harder."

Ms Whiteside - who, like her mother, is a former nurse - has submitted a dossier of evidence to show that Sutent can extend the lives of patients with advanced kidney cancer, even if they have been on other anti-cancer medication.

"It is unbelievable how much evidence there is out there," she said.

North Yorkshire and York PCT is considering Mrs Selby's case.

A spokesman said its High Cost Treatments Board recently recommended that Sutent should not be routinely funded.

This was in line with other commissioning bodies, including the Scottish Medicines Consortium.

However, the spokesman said the PCT was willing to consider individual cases if a consultant could provide additional evidence-based information.

And the North-East move places the neighbouring PCT under intense pressure to follow suit.

Campaigners predict that the decision will have a domino effect and help kidney cancer patients across the country.

Judith Potts, from Blyth, Northumberland, whose husband, Ken, 54, pays £3,000 a month for private supplies of Sutent, said: "This is absolutely brilliant."

She predicted that the breakthrough would force other authorities to cave in, drawing a parallel with the success of campaigners who fought for women to gain access to the breast cancer drug Herceptin.

"This is the Herceptin moment for kidney cancer patients," she said.

Rose Woodward, who runs the Kidney Cancer Patient Support Group from her home in Cornwall, said: "This could affect hundreds of patients across the country.

"It is now going to be very difficult for another PCT to argue against prescribing Sutent.

"This is exactly what happened over Herceptin."

Nick Turkentine, spokesman for the James Whale Fund for Kidney Cancer, said: "I think The Northern Echo has helped achieve a remarkable result for kidney cancer patients."

Sutent has not been approved by the national independent drug watchdog, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. This has left primary care trusts reluctant to fund the drug.

But last night, the North-East and Cumbria Cancer Drug Approval Group said it was approving the funding with immediate effect.

A month ago, the regional group announced that it would approve the funding of Sutent for new patients, but not for those who had been on other anti-cancer drugs.

A spokeswoman said the decision to broaden the use of Sutent had been taken after discussion with local kidney cancer specialists.

She said: "The primary care trusts have agreed that the decision about whether or not this group of patients should now receive Sunitinib (Sutent) should be made by their consultant, on clinical grounds, following discussions with the individual patients."