Thousands of cancer patients in England to benefit from new immunotherapy jab

Thousands of patients across England each year will benefit from a new immunotherapy treatment that can be used for several types of cancer, the NHS has announced. The injectable form of pembrolizumab, which can be administered in under two minutes, kills cancer cells by blocking a protein called PD-1, which acts as a brake on immune responses, allowing the immune system to recognise and attack cancer cells. This new form of immunotherapy will replace pembrolizumab, which is administered via an intravenous drip in a specialist clean room. Preparing and administering it can be time-consuming and expensive for NHS staff to maintain, taking about two hours per session for patient. Most of the 14,000 patients already taking pembrolizumab are expected to benefit from the new injectable version. It is estimated the treatment, which will be given every three weeks as a one-minute injection or every six weeks as a two-minute injection, will save the NHS more than 100,000 hours of preparation and treatment time each year. Up to 15,000 cancer patients became eligible last year for nivolumab , an immunotherapy injection that takes three to five minutes to administer. With the addition of this treatment, there are now two immunotherapies available for almost 30 types of cancer on the NHS. …