Hundreds of women with hard-to-treat ovarian cancer could benefit from a new, life-extending drug on the NHS from today – the first new addition to NHS treatment in over 20 years.
The new targeted therapy – mirvetuximab soravtansine – will be offered to patients living with ovarian cancer whose disease has stopped responding to standard (platinum-based) chemotherapy, providing new hope of extra time to live.
The drug combines a ‘homing’ antibody with a cancer-killing medicine – often described by scientists as a ‘biological missile’ or ‘trojan horse’ therapy.
It works by attaching to ovarian cancer cells that have a protein called folate receptor alpha (FRα) on their surface, before releasing a cancer-killing molecule which destroys the cell from within.
In a major global clinical trial involving eight NHS hospitals. the treatment delayed cancer progression and prolonged survival, with patients living 16.5 months on average compared to 12.8 months with chemotherapy.
One patient said the treatment helped “add life to years”, enabling her to get on with life “rather than spending it in bed recovering from the side effects of chemotherapy”.
Following a recommendation by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) today, the treatment will be available for patients with epithelial ovarian, peritoneal or fallopian tube cancer that has become resistant to platinum-based chemotherapy and whose tumours contain the FRα protein the drug targets.
The treatment is given intravenously (via a drip) over 2-4 hours, once every three weeks.
The drug may also have more tolerable side effects than traditional chemotherapy – with the treatment aimed more precisely at cancer cells than chemotherapy, which harms healthy cells
The NHS estimates up to 400 patients in England each year could benefit.
