THE NHS has rolled out a new 'super jab' that treats 15 different types of cancer - and takes just five minutes.
Thousands of patients expected to benefit from the revolutionary vaccine, an injectable form of immunotherapy called nivolumab.
It will allow cancer patients to get their fortnightly or monthly treatment in the form of an injection in five minutes, instead of spending up to an hour hooked to an IV drip.
The NHS said it was first health service in the European region to offer the new jab, which can be used to treat 15 cancer types, including skin, bladder, and oesophagus cancer.
Around two in five patients currently being treated with nivolumab - one of the most widely used cancer treatments - via IV, should be eligible for the new jab.
This works out to about 1,200 patients in England each month, according to the NHS.
Read more on cancer jabs
Most eligible new patients are expected to begin on the injectable form of nivolumab.
Supplies of the product will arrive in the UK next month, at which point cancer teams will start administering the jab.
Professor Peter Johnson, NHS England National Clinical Director for Cancer, said: “Immunotherapy has already been a huge step forward for many NHS patients with cancer, and being able to offer it as an injection in minutes means we can make the process far more convenient.
“This treatment is used for 15 different types of the disease, so it will free up thousands of valuable clinicians’ time every year, allowing teams to treat even more patients and helping hospital capacity."
The NHS said treating cancer patients with the jab could save around 1,000 hours of treatment time for patients and clinicians every month.
The rollout comes after the UK’s medicines regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), approved the jab.
In clinical trials, patients preferred the under-the-skin injection - which takes three to five minutes to administer - to the IV form of the drug, which takes 30 to 60 minutes to administer and has to be given every two weeks or four weeks, depending on the cancer type.
Elizabeth O'Mahony, NHS England chief financial officer, said: “This is fantastic news for patients – reducing treatment times from an hour to just minutes is a huge boost for people going through cancer care, helping them to spend less time in hospital.
"It’s also a major win for the NHS, saving the equivalent of a year’s worth of treatment time which can be used to deliver other care, building on the great strides made in the past six months.
"Thanks to a deal struck by NHS England this quick treatment will be available without any additional cost.”
James Richardson, clinical pharmacist and national specialty adviser for cancer drugs, added: “I am delighted that NHS patients across England will soon be able to benefit from this quicker-to-administer, effective treatment, that can be used to treat a range of cancer types, including skin cancer and solid tumours originating in the kidneys.
"This is a significant advancement in cancer treatment, with the potential to improve the lives of thousands of patients each month.”
Read More on The Sun
The new comes as thousands of patients get access to "ground-breaking" NHS trials for skin cancer vaccines.
They will be given to those patients diagnosed with advanced melanoma - the deadliest form of the skin cancer, which causes 2,340 deaths each year in the UK - from next month.
Major cancer breakthroughs shaping the future of treatment
IT’S a worrying fact that more than half of us will get cancer in our lifetime.
Each year around 385,000 people are diagnosed and 167,000 lives are lost to the disease in the UK . . . and experts have warned of an alarming new surge in the young.
But, in the face of rising cases, there is good news — the future of cancer care looks brighter.
Personalised medicine
Perhaps the most exciting new avenue of research is tailoring medicine to treat a patient’s cancer based on their own tumour’s genetic make-up.
Professor Lawrence Young, an oncologist who has been working in cancer research for 40 years, says: “We’ve learnt that by profiling the genetics, you almost get a barcode for an individual’s cancer.
“Just because somebody’s got the same stage and grade of cancer, doesn’t mean it should be treated the same, or with a particular combination of drugs.”
Some 10,000 patients in England are set to get their very own disease-busting jab by 2030, through the NHS Cancer Vaccine Launch Pad.
Immunotherapy
Dubbed the “biggest breakthrough since chemo”, immunotherapy harnesses the power of the immune system to fight cancer.
Antibodies seek out and mark the diseased cells for destruction but spare surrounding healthy tissue, unlike chemotherapy or radiotherapy.
Prof Young says: “We’ve known for 100 years the body tries to fight cancer with the immune system but it doesn’t really work.
“Cancer cleverly learns how to get around the immune response. It can switch off the way the immune system recognises it – but these antibodies can switch it back on again.
“Antibodies are effective alone, but where they are most effective is in combination with another type of immunotherapy.”
Targeted cancer drugs
These work more precisely to stop cancer cells from dividing and growing, while limiting damage to healthy cells – and their uses are expanding.
Prof Young says: “This is targeting the machinery of the genetic mutations that drive cancer.
“Some are targets we’ve known about for years but were difficult, until recently, to develop drugs for.
“The normal growth of our cells is controlled by switches which become mutated and permanently switched on in cancer cells.
“Now, after years of research, we have targeted drugs which can switch off these growth signals.”
Blood tests
Early diagnosis is still the best weapon against cancer and its devastating impacts.
Blood tests are becoming increasingly sensitive in spotting the disease, and can “identify minuscule amounts of DNA shed from tumour cells into the blood”, Prof Young says.
Prof Young says: “Current blood tests aren’t that great. For example, we measure the proteins PSA, for prostate cancer, or CEA, for ovarian cancer, but they’re not very specific.
“We want to do our best to cure cancer with early diagnosis, and with these interesting blood tests it might be possible to identify cancer early and remove it before we get too far.”