Hopeful News for Lung Cancer Treatment
"A last-chance drug that can lead to an “unprecedented” reduction in lung cancer tumours has become available on the NHS.
Tagrisso (osimertinib) was granted a licence only in February and has been hailed as a breakthrough drug by manufacturer AstraZeneca.
The once-a-day tablet will be available immediately for patients with non-small-cell lung cancer who have a specific mutation, known as EGFR T790M-positive, that means they have stopped responding to earlier treatments. Experts predict about 300 patients in England and Wales will be eligible for Tagrisso every year.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) has issued final draft guidance that says Tagrisso should be made available through the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF), after a financial agreement was reached with AstraZeneca.
Prof Carole Longson, the director of the health technology evaluation centre at Nice, said the drug was being made available while clinical trials continue to assess its full effectiveness. It is the first drug to be approved under the updated CDF.
She said: “People with this particular type of lung cancer usually have distressing symptoms and their disease can progress very quickly. Osimertinib is clinically effective in the short term. However, we do not have the full picture yet and we need more information on its long-term benefits to find out if it is truly cost-effective..."
Learn more:
Σχόλια
Δημοσίευση σχολίου