Patients with advanced cancer will be denied four life-extending drugs on the NHS under proposals from the Government's drugs watchdog.

The National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) says the drugs - bevacizumab, sorafenib, sunitinib and temsirolimus - are not "cost effective".

They are said to extend a patient's life from around five to six months and cost between £20,000 to £35,000 per person.

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But some experts say it has left patients with only one treatment option, called interferon.

Around 75 per cent of sufferers do not respond to it.

Dr Julian Spinks, from Court View surgery at Rochester, said he would like to see different cost targets set for advanced cancer therapies compared to general medication.

He said: "This exposes a flaw in the way things work. The current system is biased against more expensive treatments that prolong life in the short-term.

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"NICE are finding its current limits get breached as it is working within the requirements that the Government has given them.

"I can understand how a kidney cancer patient is going to want to fight this decision."

Dan Lloyd, senior lecturer in pharmacology at Kent University, said: "There are no unlimited funds for the NHS so we have to draw a line somewhere - but if I was a kidney cancer patient I’d be jumping up and down.

"The threshold is based on evidence that says whether it is cost effective and the benefits it brings to the patient and the nation as a whole, which are hard decisions to make.

"This was a preliminary decision and there are on-going clinical trials to review the evidence, which could potentially give patients hope or it could confirm that the drugs are not cost-effective."

More than 7,000 people are diagnosed with advanced kidney cancer a year in the UK.

Of these, around 1,700 patients will be diagnosed with advanced kidney cancer.