This story was first published in digitalhealth.net
NHS to offer alternative thyroid cancer treatments
New guidance from NICE has recommended three drugs, treating two types of thyroid cancer, to be made routinely available in the NHS.
It is estimated that approximately 1,300 people could benefit from the treatments over the next five years. Differentiated thyroid cancers are the most common type of thyroid cancer and affect around 1,800 to 2,790 people each year in England. Approximately 200 of those people have tumours that continue to grow after radioactive iodine therapy.
Cabozantib, made by Ipsen and sorafenib, made by Bayer, have been recommended by NICE to come off the Cancer Drugs Fund and into routine use, while lenvatinib, produced by Eisai, has also been recommended for routine NHS use. Cabozantinib is now recommended as an option for treating medullary thyroid cancer that cannot be operated on or has spread around the body, working by blocking certain proteins on cancer cells, stopping them growing and dividing.
Lenvatinib and sorafenib are now recommended as options for differentiated thyroid cancers that have continued to grow or spread around the body after surgery and radioactive iodine therapy.
Mirella Marlow, acting director of the NICE centre for health technology evaluation, said: “Treatment options for these types of thyroid cancer are limited, so it is important that we are able to give patients much needed access to alternatives to best supportive care at this stage of their disease. These drugs will give patients extra time, as well as improving their quality of life.”
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