In a major breakthrough for cancer care, the NHS in England is set to provide a life-extending drug to thousands of men with prostate cancer within weeks. The move, which could grant families precious extra years together, involves widening access to the medication abiraterone for patients whose cancer has not yet spread.
Expanding Access to a Vital Treatment
For the first time, men with non-metastatic prostate cancer will be eligible for abiraterone on the health service. Around 2,000 men diagnosed in the past three months are expected to benefit immediately, pending clinical assessments that confirm they are likely to gain from the treatment. Furthermore, an estimated 7,000 additional men per year will become eligible following their diagnosis.
The drug works by starving prostate cancer cells of the hormones, like testosterone, that they need to grow, thereby helping to stop the disease from spreading. Already a staple for treating advanced prostate cancer on the NHS, abiraterone is now available as a more affordable generic medicine, facilitating this expanded rollout.
Dramatic Survival Improvements Shown in Trials
Clinical trial data underpinning the decision reveals significant benefits. After six years, 86 per cent of men taking abiraterone were still alive, compared to 77 per cent of those receiving standard treatment, which includes hormone therapy with or without radiotherapy.
The treatment also more than doubles the period patients live without their cancer progressing, extending it from approximately 15 months to 33 months. For certain high-risk patients, research published last year indicated abiraterone could almost halve the risk of death – reducing it from 17 per cent to just nine per cent after five years.
New artificial intelligence tools, currently being trialled in NHS hospitals, are now assisting clinicians in identifying which high-risk men are most likely to benefit from this potent drug.
A Personal and National Commitment to Cancer Care
Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting welcomed the rollout, drawing on his personal experience with kidney cancer. "I will always be grateful to the NHS staff who threw me a lifeline," he said. "For men living with prostate cancer, that lifeline can now come in the form of a drug treatment, abiraterone."
He added, "Thanks to the roll out of abiraterone, which greatly improves survival rates beyond six years, thousands of fathers, sons, brothers, partners and husbands will be able to face a future they feared they might never see."
NHS England stated that the ability to approve wider access followed successful negotiations to secure better value for medicines, allowing savings to be reinvested into new treatments. The health service has a target to save over £1 billion on clinically effective biosimilar and generic drugs during this parliament.
Professor Peter Johnson, national clinical director for cancer at NHS England, said the expanded access could be 'life-changing' for thousands of men, helping to keep their cancer at bay for several years. The decision follows collaboration with campaigners, including Prostate Cancer UK.
Mr Streeting positioned the move as evidence of a renewed urgency around cancer care, ahead of the forthcoming launch of a National Cancer Plan. "This latest roll out proves once again we're serious about improving prostate cancer outcomes," he affirmed.
With more than 63,000 men diagnosed with prostate cancer annually in the UK and roughly 12,000 deaths from the disease, this expanded access to abiraterone marks a critical step forward in the fight against one of the most common cancers affecting men.
