Posted by Michael Wonder on 06 Jun 2018
Life-extending lung cancer drug will be more widely available on the NHS after NICE review
6 June 2018 - NICE says more people should be able to freely access pembrolizumab, known as Keytruda, after a new trial shows it helps certain adults with lung cancer live more than a year longer.
Before, pembrolizumab had only been widely available to adults with advanced lung cancer if their disease had progressed after another treatment. Patients with untreated lung cancer had to apply for special funding via the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF).
This draft recommendation means more people will have an automatic right to pembrolizumab on the NHS 30 days after NICE publishes final guidance later in June.
