7 August 2015 - A delay in access to a drug that has been shown to double the life expectancy of some patients with lung cancer has been described as a “disgrace”.

Paula Chadwick, chief executive of Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation, said patients are unlikely to be able to take immunotherapy drug nivolumab (Opdivo) until May 2016 at the earliest, which will be too late for some.

Although the drug is officially licensed by the European commission from Friday 7 August, it will have to go through the NHS approval system and have its cost-effectiveness evaluated before it is available for patients.

It had previously been available on the Early Access to Medicines scheme (Eams), which gives patients access to promising new drugs that are not yet licensed. But now that access will stop, a situation described as a “shambles” by Chadwick.

Nivolumab is one of a new generation of immunotherapy drugs that help patients’ own immune systems fight cancer.

In June, the results from a major international trial were described by one expert as a “paradigm shift in the treatment of lung cancer”.

For more details, go to: http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/aug/07/delay-in-nhs-patients-access-to-cancer-drug-labelled-a-disgrace