HUNDREDS of women with breast cancer will get months of extra life thanks to a new NHS drug.
Patients with an incurable type of cancer called HER2-positive will be offered the medicine Enhertu to slow down its progress.
Around 600 women per year in England are expected to benefit when their cancer comes back after treatment.
Trials found the drug, known as trastuzumab deruxtecan, can halve certain patients’ risk of disease progression or death within the first 18 months of taking it.
It increased the amount of time without tumour growth to an average of 9.9 months, from 5.1 months with standard chemotherapy.
Peter Clark, from NHS England’s Cancer Drugs Fund, said: “This cutting-edge drug will give hundreds of patients with secondary incurable breast cancer hope.
“It will increase the amount of time people have before their cancer gets worse, and allow them to live normal, healthy lives for longer.”
Chief executive of Breast Cancer Now, Baroness Delyth Morgan, said the approval by the National Institutes for Health and Care Excellence was “fantastic news”.
Trials of the drug are ongoing to see if it will benefit more groups of patients.
