Thousands of patients will benefit from a new nivolumab cancer jab for more than a dozen types of the disease, with the NHS being the first in Europe to offer the new injection.
Nivolumab, an injectable form of immunotherapy, means patients can receive their fortnightly or monthly treatment in 5 minutes instead of up to an hour via an IV drip.
The roll-out will save patients and NHS teams over a year’s worth of treatment time annually, enabling patients to spend less time in the hospital while freeing up staff capacity to deliver more appointments and treatments.
Increased advantages of the nivolumab jab
The nivolumab jab can be used to treat 15 cancer types, including skin cancer, bladder, and oesophagus, and it is estimated that around 1,200 patients in England per month could benefit.
This is a follow-up to approval from the UK’s medicines regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), today.
Professor Peter Johnson, NHS England National Clinical Director for Cancer, said: “This treatment is used for 15 different types of the disease, so it will free up thousands of valuable clinicians’ time every year, allowing teams to treat even more patients and helping hospital capacity.
“This is just the latest development in the NHS’s ongoing commitment to provide patients with the latest cancer therapies and treatment options that truly transform lives.”
In clinical trials, patients were highly satisfied with the under-the-skin injection, which takes 3-5 minutes to administer, and preferred it to the IV form of the drug, which takes 30-60 minutes every two weeks or four weeks, depending on the cancer type.
Around 2 in 5 patients who currently receive IV nivolumab, which is one of the most widely used cancer treatments, should be eligible for the new jab.
NHS staff administering the jab could save around 1,000 hours of treatment time for patients and clinicians every month – the equivalent of more than 1 full year of time annually.
Rolling out the vaccine in clinical healthcare
Most eligible new patients are also expected to begin using the injectable form of nivolumab.
NHS cancer services will now be preparing to treat the first patients with the new treatment next month when supplies of the product are received in the UK, helping to free up valuable resources in nursing and pharmacy teams, as well as helping with capacity demands in cancer day units, where the drug is currently administered.
This is the latest in a series of NHS cancer treatment innovations introduced to save patients time and improve access, including the rollout of new injections for breast cancer, multiple sclerosis, and blood disorders.
“This is a major win for the NHS, saving the equivalent of a year’s worth of treatment time, which can be used to deliver other care, building on the great strides made in the past 6 months,” commented Elizabeth O’Mahony, NHS England Chief Financial Officer.
The rollout forms part of NHS England’s 3-pillar approach to delivering the best value from medicines. This combines cutting-edge innovations such as a potential cure for sickle cell and life-changing cystic fibrosis drugs; smarter use of biosimilars and generics delivering hundreds of millions in annual savings; and new treatments like this that free up clinical capacity and improve patient experience.
