GENE TREATMENT FOR ADVANCED DISEASE

PEOPLE with a highly aggressive type of lung cancer are set to benefit from a gene therapy drug after NHS spending watchdog NICE gave it the green light last week.

The medication, tepotinib, is the first targeted treatment for advanced lung cancer linked to a genetic fault known as a METex14 skipping alteration.

Health chiefs approved tepotinib for patients in England, Wales and Northern Ireland after studies showed it slowed disease progression and helped patients to live longer – 20 months on average.

METex14 skipping alterations are seen in patients with nonsmall cell lung cancer, the most common form of the disease. Targeted treatments such as tepotinib require genetic testing to determine eligibility – and the NHS is developing genomic laboratory hubs across the UK, equipped to manage these more complex assessments.