Lung cancer drug doubles survival time in some cases

LUNG cancer patients could now survive for twice as long thanks to an Astrazeneca drug that has been approved for use on the NHS.

The treatment, called Durvalumab, will benefit around 550 patients a year with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who have already undergone chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

Clinical trials found it can double the time someone can survive with the aggressive form of lung cancer to five years and NHS England has done a deal with Astrazeneca after its approval by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice).

Nice recommended the treatment for use after clinical evidence found it raises survival times and delays the cancer’s progression. Around 48,500 new lung cancer cases are identified every year in the UK and NSCLC is the most common form, accounting for 85 to 90 per cent of cases.

Durvalumab, which uses the body’s immune system to fight cancer cells with a protein known as PD-L1, is administered once a month via infusion into a vein, and the treatment takes up to an hour.