Cancer patients across Manchester are celebrating after the national body in charge of approving medicines for use on the NHS performed a U-turn over a wonder skin cancer treatment.
In draft guidelines released this week, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence proposed making life-prolonging drug Ipilimumab more accessible to patients suffering with the deadliest form of skin cancer.
NICE was previously criticised for ruling that the drug should only be available to those whose treatments had failed, or to those taking part in clinical trials.
Ipilimumab, marketed as Yervoy, is one of the first of a new generation of immunotherapy drugs that have been hailed as a turning point in cancer treatment.
Currently, the front line drug prescribed is dacarbazine, a form of chemotherapy, which is generally considered to be ineffective in fighting the disease.
However, clinical trial results of Yervoy revealed it had prolonged the lives of patients suffering from malignant melanoma by an average of four months, but up to and further than five years.
The Christie’s skin cancer expert, Dr Paul Lorigan, told MM: “It’s a great day for Melanoma patients.
“More patients can get the most appropriate treatment straight away and not be delayed in accessing it.
“It’s a great decision by NICE. Yervoy will reduce peoples exposure to ineffective treatment, increase quality of life and prolong lives.
“More patients will be long-term survivors.”
He added that many European countries follow decisions made by NICE, who often pave the way in successful new treatments, so it is not only a great day for UK patients, but it also gives hope to patients around the world.
Malignant Melanoma kills more than 2,000 people a year in the UK and is now the second most common form of cancer in young adults aged 15-34.
NICE’s U-turn came about as a result of a strong campaign headed by Melanoma UK’s Gill Nuttall, and after fresh new evidence reaffirmed its effectiveness.
Gill, of Oldham, together with the Melanoma Taskforce, launched a campaign after NICE’s original decision made in February, and encouraged people to lobby MPs to get the ruling reversed.
Praising the work of Melanoma UK in raising awareness of melanoma, Dr Lorigan said: “Gill has been a great voice and a great supporter of melanoma patients and I am sure that her campaign had an effect on NICE’s decision.
“The voice of the patients is important so when something has a lot of support they go back and look at it again.”
Gill and her team took to Westminster to try and get the decision reversed, and had a number of MPs backing them including Labour MP for Heywood and Middleton, Jim Dobbin.
In light of their change-of-heart, Gill told MM: “Advanced Melanoma is a brutal disease and patients have limited options available- introducing Yervoy as a first line treatment is very good news, not least because it gives clinicians the opportunity to give a patient a better chance of longer survival.
“When I came into the melanoma space 7 years ago – patient advocacy was almost non-existent. Now, in 2 years we’ve helped to bring 2 innovative treatments to patients.”
Jackie Marshall, a melanoma patient, said: “This is really positive news for melanoma patients, who will no longer have to endure older and mostly ineffective chemotherapy drugs, while getting sicker and sicker, hoping that they will be well enough to receive Yervoy when it’s finally offered.
“It’s known the Yervoy can take a while to kick in, so it can only be beneficial to have it approved for earlier use before patients become too poorly.
“The melanoma community owes a great deal of thanks to Gill Nuttall and others like her who really do go that extra mile”
NICE’s final ruling on Yervoy is due to be issued on July 23, but Gill and Dr Lorigan are positive the decision will not be changed.
Image courtesy of Stephen Dickter, with thanks.
