A groundbreaking new cancer treatment, hailed by patients as “game-changing”, will be available via the NHS from today.
The drug capivasertib has been shown in trials to slow the spread of the most common form of incurable breast cancer.
Taken in conjunction with an already-available hormonal therapy, it has been shown in trials to double how long treatment will keep the cancer cells from progressing.
“I don’t look at myself anymore as a dying person,” says Ellen Hughes, who has been using the drug since February this year.
“I look at myself as a thriving person, who will carry on thriving for as long as I possibly can.”
Mrs Hughes, from North Wales, was first diagnosed with primary breast cancer in 2008.
Eight years later, then aged 46 and with three young children, she was told the cancer had returned and spread.
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She says that capivasertib, which she has been able to access via private healthcare, has not only extended her life but improved its quality with fewer side effects than previous medications.
It also delays the need for more aggressive blanket treatments like chemotherapy.
“What people don’t understand is that they might look at the statistics and see that [the therapy] is effective for eight months versus two months, or whatever,” says Mrs Hughes.
“But in cancer, and the land that we live in, really we can do a lot in six months.”
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Mrs Hughes says her cancer therapy has allowed her “to see my daughter get married” and believes it is “absolutely brilliant” that the new drug will be available to more patients via the NHS.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence approved capivasertib for NHS-use after two decades of research by UK teams.
Professor Nicholas Turner, from the Institute of Cancer Research which led the study, told Sky News it was a “great success story for British science”.
The new drug is suitable for patients’ tumours with mutations or alterations in the PIK3CA, AKT1 or PTEN genes, which are found in approximately half of patients with advanced breast cancer.
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Prof Turner says hundreds of patients could see the benefit in the immediate future, with thousands more people identified over time.
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“We need new drugs that will help our existing therapies work for longer, and that’s where this new drug, capivasertib comes in,” says Prof Turner.
“It doubles how long hormone therapy treatment works for, giving patients precious extra time with their families.”
He called for urgent genetic testing of patients with advanced breast cancers to see if they could benefit.
