The National institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has approved the drug osimertinib (Tagrisso) that can be used to treat some adults with advanced lung cancer.
The new targeted drug will be used on the cases of advanced lung cancer that tests positive for a faulty version of a molecule called EGFR.
In England, there are around 1800 people who have advanced EGFR-positive lung cancer.
Cancer Research UK’s chief clinician, Professor Charlie Swanton, said, “It’s great news for patients affected by this type of lung cancer that osimertinib has been made more widely accessible.
“Clinical trial results suggest it may be more effective than some other medicines currently used as patients’ first treatment, particularly for people with cancer that has spread to their brain, though its impact on patients’ long-term survival remains unclear for now.”
The drug has been used since 2016 as a second line treatment via the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) to treat Non-small-cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) that’s spread once initial treatments have failed.
This treatment has only been used on those patients if the cancer carries a particular mutation in the EGFR gene.
The CDF gives patients access to innovative treatments while more data is collected on their benefits.
To find out more, visit the Cancer Research UK website HERE.
