Cancer drugs can come with nasty side-effects, we know that, but they are worth taking because they have been properly scientifically tested and found to help patients live longer and have a better quality of life. But the latest research shows that the reality is not so comforting. Over half of new drugs are being prescribed to patients with little or no evidence they do any good at all. Here’s how it works.

As a 48 year old wife and mother with late stage cancer in my lungs, lymph nodes, bones and brain I had been quietly hoping that Lord Saatchi’s Medical Innovation Bill would make it through the House of Commons – unusual as that outcome may have been for a private member’s bill. But hey, he got it through the Lords, had The Telegraph backing his cause and won considerable support in the country, so there was some cause for excitement.