'Encouraging' lung cancer drug approved on NHS

A drug that can lead to the reduction in lung cancer tumours has been made available on the NHS.

Tagrisso (osimertinib) is a tablet suitable for patients with non-small-cell lung cancer who, because of a certain mutation, have stopped responding to treatments.

The drug, which was granted a licence in February was previously denied approval by The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) due to concerns about its cost effectiveness. However, a financial agreement between Nice and drug manufacturer AstraZeneca enabled Tagrisso to be made available through the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF).

Tagrisso is now expected to immediately available as another treatment option for people with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer. It is predicted that 300 patients in England and Wales will be eligible for Tagrisso every year.

The drug targets cancer cells directly making the side effects less severe compared to other chemotherapy. Clinical trials showed that 66% of patients experienced a reduction in the size of their tumours. Remarkably, six out of 397 patients experienced a complete response where experts could find no evidence of the disease.

Compared with chemotherapy almost twice as many patients responded to the treatment and the drug was found to stall progression of the cancer by an extra four months.

Clinical trials will continue to assess Tagrisso’s benefits and cost effectiveness. The drug was only made available under an updated CDF, where any cancer drugs approved by NICE will be immediately funded by NHS England.

Professor Carole Longson, director of the health technology evaluation centre at Nice, said: "People with this particular type of lung cancer usually have distressing symptoms and their disease can progress very quickly. Osimertinib is clinically effective in the short term. However, we do not have the full picture yet and we need more information on its long-term benefits to find out if it is truly cost effective. For the first time, we are able to give patients access to a promising new cancer treatment whilst more evidence is gathered on its effectiveness. This is the system working as it should."

Lisa Anson, country president for AstraZeneca UK and Ireland, said: "We are very proud that NHS patients in England now have access to osimertinib. This is a breakthrough medicine with one of the fastest development programmes in pharmaceutical history.

"Now it is the first medicine to enter the newly reformed Cancer Drugs Fund, which is specifically designed to ensure earlier access to breakthrough cancer treatments."