The road to faster and more efficient care of patients with 15 different types of cancer in Britain.

Up to 15,000 patients with cancer a year could be treated through a rapid injection, announced the National Health System of the UKNHS England.
This is the first public health service in Europe that offers patients the injectable form of Nivolumab immunotherapeutic drug.

The injection lasts only three to five minutes and is suitable for 15 different types of cancer, such as lung, intestinal, kidney, bladder, esophagus, skin, head and neck.

The UK Regulatory Authority of Drugs and Health Products (MHRA) has approved the injectable form of Nivolumab, also known as Opdivo, as an alternative to intravenous administration, which can last up to one hour.

With patients needing treatment every fortnight or monthly, NHS England said the new method would save more than one year of therapeutic time annually.

Professor Peter Johnson, a National Clinical Director for Cancer at NHS England, said time saving would “allow medical groups to cure even more patients” and release hospitals capacity.

“Immunotherapy has already been a huge step forward for many patients with NHS cancer, and the fact that we can now offer it through an injection within minutes means that we make the process much more convenient,” he said.

Niolumab helps the immune system to combat cancer, preventing signals from cancer cells that stop the immune response. It is committed to a protein called PD-1 (Programmed Death-1) in T-cells, a type of immune cell. This prevents cancer cells from turning off T-cells, allowing the immune system to detect and destroy cancer cells.

NHS England said that about 1,200 patients a month could benefit from the transition to injection, and most young patients are likely to receive it from now on.

Injectable treatment will not cost NHS more than intravenous administration, as a price agreement was reached between NHS England and the manufacturer Bristol Myers Squibb.

Nasser Turaby at the Cancer Research UK said that “innovations such as this will be crucial to faster and more efficient treatment of cancer patients. We are in a golden age of cancer research, and it is vital that our health system will continue to adapt, offering the best possible care to patients. “

“The government has the opportunity to take advantage of this step with the forthcoming national plan for cancer in England, which should provide for investment and reforms in NHS so that innovative treatments and cutting -edge technologies can reach patients as quickly as possible.”