Britain's state-run national health service is set to be the first in the world to roll out an injection for hundreds of cancer patients in England that treats the disease and could cut treatment times by up to three-quarters, as reported by news agency Reuters. After approval from the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), NHS England stated that on Tuesday, hundreds of eligible patients treated with the immunotherapy, atezolizumab, were set to have "under the skin" injection. Atezolizumab is also known as Tecentriq.
"This approval will not only allow us to deliver convenient and faster care for our patients but will also enable our teams to treat more patients throughout the day," Dr. Alexander Martin, a consultant oncologist at West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, said, as quoted by Reuters.
According to Reuters, NHS England said atezolizumab is usually given to patients intravenously, directly into their veins via a drip. It could often take 30 minutes or up to an hour for some patients when it is difficult to access a vein. "It takes approximately seven minutes, compared with 30 to 60 minutes for the current method of an intravenous infusion," Marius Scholtz, Medical Director at Roche Products Limited, said, as quoted by Reuters.
Atezolizumab, made by Genentech, a Roche (ROG.S) company, is an immunotherapy drug that empowers a patient's own immune system to seek out and destroy cancerous cells. The treatment is currently offered to NHS patients with a range of cancers, including lung, breast, liver, and bladder.
NHS England said it expected the majority of around 3,600 patients starting the treatment of atezolizumab every year in England to switch to the time-saving injection. But added that patients receiving intravenous chemotherapy in combination with atezolizumab may remain on the transfusion.