Thousands of patients with early-stage bowel cancer will have improved hopes of a cure because NHS treatment advisers seem ready to back a new drug, a cancer specialist said yesterday.

The addition of Eloxatin to standard chemotherapy after surgery will further reduce the risk of the cancer returning. Up to 8,000 patients a year whose cancer has not spread beyond the colon could be offered the drug if the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) confirms the decision next year.

Harpreet Wasan, a medical oncologist at Hammersmith Hospital, London, said: "Recent trials have shown Eloxatin to be the most effective treatment advance in 15 years in this group of patients with bowel cancer. Routine access on the NHS will make a huge difference to our ability to treat and potentially cure the thousands of patients diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer every year in the UK."

Rob Glynne-Jones, a consultant oncologist at Mount Vernon Cancer Centre in north London, said: "The preliminary recommendations are a positive step and we look forward to all eligible patients having access to the best choice of treatment when the final guidance comes through. This will save lives in the future."

The charity Beating Bowel Cancer said it was "impossible to overstate the importance" of the decision. Hilary Whitaker, chief executive, said: "We want all eligible patients to have the best chance of cure and although the final guidance may take some months to be confirmed, patients should start speaking to their clinicians now to ensure they are offered the option of the most effective treatment for their particular kind of bowel cancer."

Evidence shows bowel cancer returns within four years after surgery in about half of all early-stage patients. Standard chemotherapy regimes reduce this to about 40%. Taking Eloxatin, made by Sanofi-Aventis, means only around 30% of cancers come back. The drug has side-effects, including making the nerves in the hands and feet tingle or go numb, a decrease in white blood cells, reduced platelet count, diarrhoea, vomiting, and gastro-intestinal inflammation.

The decision comes as Nice tries to speed up recommendations on a range of new cancer drugs. Charities complain that bottlenecks in the system for reviewing their efficacy and cost-effectiveness mean patients are being denied treatments.

Meanwhile, scientists at Newcastle University suggest that activity of the protein Beta-catenin in brain tumours caused by the childhood cancer medulloblastoma may signal a milder form of the disease. This could help doctors better to tailor treatments, which often have side-effects. Brain tumours in children are rare, about 300 are diagnosed each year and about one in five are medulloblastomas.