Ovarian cancer treatment developed by Newcastle University approved by NHS

The NHS has approved an ovarian cancer treatment developed by a team of scientists at Newcastle University.

Rubraca could benefit around 1,350 women in England with relapsed ovarian, fallopian tube or peritoneal cancer. The new treatment is designed for patients whose cancer has responded to platinum-based chemotherapy. It will be made immediately available through the Cancer Drugs Fund.

Dr Yvette Drew, senior lecturer from Newcastle University’s Faculty of Medical Sciences and a consultant medical oncologist led the development of Rubraca in the North East.

She said: “The approval of Rubraca is fantastic news for our patients and a testament to the tenacity of the Newcastle scientific team who originally developed this drug - an example of great team science. Many of my patients have benefited from Rubraca through clinical trials and it is fantastic news that this is now available to a wider group of women with recurrent high-grade ovarian cancer.”

The drug is an oral treatment that has been shown to delay progression of the cancer after response to chemotherapy and also delay the time needed between chemotherapy sessions.

While clinical trial data shows that the treatment prevents cancer for twice as long as the placebo treatment, it’s not known if this translates into overall extended life-expectancy.

The treatment works by exploiting a defect in the cancer cell’s ability to repair normal wear and tear to its DNA – enabling it to kill the tumour cells without overly harming heathy cells.

Around 7,000 women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer across the UK every year. Of these, it’s thought that up to 20% will have a BRCA gene mutation, putting them at increased risk of developing other cancers and a 50% risk of passing the faulty gene to their children

NICE initially decided to reject Rubraca based on the pricing submitted by the drug’s owner Clovis Oncology. However, after Clovis Oncology proposed an alternative price for the drug, NICE decided to include the treatment in the Cancer Drugs Fund to allow long-term data to be collected.

Michelle Mitchell, Cancer Research UK’s chief executive, said: “This approval is the result of many years of hard work by Cancer Research UK scientists based at Newcastle University, who developed this drug in the 1990s in collaboration with industry partners.

“Because this drug has been approved through the Cancer Drugs Fund, patients will be able to access it quickly while more evidence is gathered on its long-term effectiveness.

“More trials are underway to discover whether this drug could also benefit people with other types of cancer and we await those results with interest.”