Up to 1,600 women a year will be able to receive pembrolizumab, which has the potential to leave some of those who take it completely cancer-free, NHS England said. The drug – a form of immunotherapy – will be given to women with triple-negative breast cancer, for which there are currently few treatments. Triple-negative breast cancer patients have a shorter survival time than women with other forms of the disease, and it is a particularly common form in people under 40, black women and those who have inherited the BRCA gene. Amanda Pritchard, chief executive of NHS England, said the launch of “an innovative, potentially life-saving treatment for one of the most aggressive forms of breast cancer” was “fantastic news” and represented “a hugely important moment for women”. “It will give hope to those diagnosed and prevent cancer from progressing, allowing people to live normal, healthy lives,” he added. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) approved the drug in its final draft guidance after successful price negotiations between NHS England and its manufacturer, the pharmaceutical company MSB. The health watchdog, which advises the NHS on which treatments are effective and represent value for money, gave the green light to the drug which is used alongside chemotherapy to shrink a breast tumor before surgery or on its own of, following operations in adults with triple-negative early breast cancer who are at high risk of recurrence or locally advanced breast cancer. “This new treatment can potentially lead to the disappearance of any detectable cancer by the time of surgery, meaning patients will potentially face less invasive breast conserving surgery,” said Delyth Morgan, chief executive of the Breast Cancer charity Now. “Furthermore, by significantly reducing the chance of breast cancer returning or spreading to other parts of the body where it becomes an incurable secondary breast cancer, this treatment brings earlier hope for more lives potentially being saved from this devastating disease.” Nice said the drug is “an extra lifeline” for those with triple-negative breast cancer. It accounts for about one in five breast cancer diagnoses, but about one in four deaths from it. “Clinical trial evidence shows that adding pembrolizumab to chemotherapy before surgery and then continuing with pembrolizumab alone after surgery increases the chance that the cancer will go away. It also increases the time before any cancer comes back,” Nice said. However, he said: “It is not clear whether pembrolizumab increases people’s lifespan.” Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Nice added that the fact that triple-negative breast cancer has a higher risk of recurrence than other forms of the disease and the lack of proven treatments helped convince the approval. The drug has been found to be effective in clinical trials in Britain. Lauren Sirey, an NHS nurse who received it as part of a trial at Barts Health Trust in London, has been cancer free for almost five years after taking it in 2017. “Four months before my partner and I were to get married, I was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer at the age of 31. I have been offered the opportunity to take part in a clinical trial and I am delighted to hear that this treatment is now approved for use on the NHS,” he said. “This treatment allowed me to fully recover and I am now approaching my five-year anniversary.”
