Groundbreaking drug to be offered to bladder cancer patients through the NHS

Patients with incurable bladder cancer are to be offered a groundbreaking drug on the NHS that offers months or even years of extra health.

Prescribing watchdog the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recently reversed its initial decision not to fund the treatment, and now the drug, avelumab, which is already available in Scotland, is expected to benefit around 800 patients each year in England and Wales.

Bladder cancer, which is diagnosed in more than 10,000 people in the UK every year, offers a bleak prognosis when spotted after it has spread.  According to Cancer Research UK, for patients diagnosed when it has spread to elsewhere in the body, only a third are alive after one year.

Last year, NICE rejected the drug as too expensive, but in draft guidance have now reversed their decision and agreed to fund it for patients for up to five years, after negotiating a discount on the price.

Professor Alison Birtle, consultant oncologist at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said about the drug “Despite it not being a rare form of cancer, the standard chemotherapy treatment has not changed in 20 years.

“This immunotherapy not only gives patients more time, it often gives them good quality time as the side effects are generally not as unpleasant as those caused by chemotherapy.”

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Posted by Karen Motley, Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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