This story was first published in digitalhealth.net
New treatment for advanced blood cancer
People with an advanced type of blood cancer will benefit from nivolumab on the NHS following approval by NICE.
Nivolumab, also called Opdivo, will be available on the NHS for patients with classical Hodgkin lymphoma who have exhausted all other treatments.
It works by harnessing a patient’s own immune system to destroy their cancer cells, and has been hailed as an innovative way to battle cancer.
The drug, which is manufactured by Bristol-Myers Squibb, will be used for patients whose cancer is progressing despite having a stem cell transplant from their own cells and treatment with another drug, brentuximab vedotin.
Nivolumab could keep patients well enough to have a stem cell transplant from another person’s healthy cells, and could cure the disease.
The manufacturer estimates that around 30 patients per year with Hodgkin lymphoma could benefit from the drug in the first year.
Carole Longson, director of the centre for health technology evaluation at NICE, said: “These patients with Hodgkin lymphoma often have a poor prognosis with limited options left. Nivolumab offers them a promising treatment and our committee were able to recommend the drug as a cost effective use of NHS resources.”
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