Breakthrough treatments to tackle lung cancer and dementia are on the horizon, with a lung cancer vaccine now being tested and a drug to slow the progression of early-stage Alzheimer’s available for use in the UK for the first time, albeit not on the NHS.
The lung cancer vaccine, known as BNT116, has been developed by pharmaceutical company BioNTech using the pioneering messenger RNA (mRNA) technology that was used to develop the Covid-19 vaccine in record time.
It is designed to treat non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the most common form of the disease. Lung cancer is one of the most common types of cancer, with more than 43,000 new diagnoses in the UK every year.
Lung cancer
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The phase 1 clinical trial will take place across 34 research sites in seven countries, with six located in England and Wales. Overall, it is hoped about 130 lung cancer patients will be enrolled, 20 of whom will be based in the UK.
It is hoped the jab will bolster a patient’s immune response to cancer while leaving healthy cells untouched, unlike chemotherapy.
Professor Siow Ming Lee, a consultant medical oncologist at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH), which is leading the trial in the UK, told the PA news agency: “This technology has moved on incredibly fast. It’s simple to deliver, and you can select specific antigens in the cancer cell, and then you target them.
“This technology is the next big phase of cancer treatment. We’ve been through chemotherapy. We’ve been through the standard immunotherapy treatment for some lung cancer patients. We’ve got personalised treatments using EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor). But now we just want to add on another additional immune approach attack, and we hope it’s a success,” he added.
Separately, the drug Lecanemab (also called Leqembi and made by Eisai), which is designed to slow progression in mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia because of Alzheimer’s disease in adults, has been licensed by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
However, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has said the benefits of the new drug “are too small to justify the costs” of making it available on the NHS.
The drug is the first medicine to be licensed for Great Britain that has been shown to slow down progression of the disease, by between four and six months, NICE’s independent committee heard.
“However, the costs of providing the treatment, including fortnightly infusions in hospital and intensive monitoring for side effects, combined with the relatively small benefits it provides to patients means it cannot be considered good value for the taxpayer,” NICE added.
NICE chief executive Dr Samantha Roberts said, while the drug has “a small but meaningful” effect, there is as yet a lack of evidence for its long-term effects.
“Lecanemab and other similar treatments for Alzheimer’s disease now coming on stream have prompted a great deal of debate about the prospects of being able for the first time to slow the effects of a condition that is progressive, life-limiting, complex and distressing,” she said.
“For NICE to be able to approve a medicine for use in the NHS it must not only provide benefits to patients, but it must also represent a good use of NHS resources and taxpayers’ money,” Dr Roberts added.
A public consultation on the draft guidance is due to close on Friday 20 September.
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