UK patients will become the first in the world to be injected with a monoclonal antibody within minutes to treat various types of cancer, reports The Guardian.
After gaining approval from the UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulator (MHRA), the NHS will be the first healthcare system to implement subcutaneous injection of atezolizumab to hundreds of patients each year. Treatment time for some cancer patients will be reduced by up to three quarters with atezolizumab.
The drug, also known as Tecentriq, treats different types of cancer, including lung, breast, liver and bladder cancers. It is given to around 3,600 patients in England each year, so far only intravenously.
Less than 7 minutes instead of an hour
Atezolizumab works by helping the immune system find and kill cancer cells. This injection, instead of an intravenous infusion, allows the patient to benefit from this antibody in just seven minutes instead of the 30 minutes or even an hour normally required.
“The advent of giving this treatment by injection means hundreds of patients will be able to spend less time in hospital and it will free up time in chemotherapy units,” said NHS director Peter Johnson.
The Swiss laboratory Roche, which develops Tecentriq, has indicated that the Food and Drug Administration -equivalent to HAS in the United States- and the European Medicines Agency are also working on a possible approval of the drug by this route of administration.
Source: BFM TV
