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 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 each month, according to the NHS.
Professor Peter Johnson, NHS 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 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.
