The NHS is rolling out a new breast cancer drug that can extend the lives of patients who have been given a terminal diagnosis.
The pill can delay chemotherapy or mean it could be avoided altogether.
Draft guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence means the twice-daily drug, called abemaciclib, will immediately be offered to 2,500 women in England who have already tried other hormone drugs.
Baroness Delyth Morgan, chief executive of charity Breast Cancer Now, said: “[This] approval is fantastic news for thousands of women with a form of incurable secondary breast cancer.
“Furthermore, abemaciclib with [cancer drug] fulvestrant could help women have the best quality of life possible in these extra months with side effects that may be more tolerable for some than those of other drugs available on the NHS.
“This treatment can also delay the need to start chemotherapy and enduring its debilitating side effects.”
NICE rejected abemaciclib in February but reversed its decision after the maker Eli Lilly submitted new cost effectiveness analysis.
The drug, also known by brand name Verzenios, has a list price of £3,000 for 56 tablets but NHS collective bargaining means the UK has secured it at a discounted rate.
The exact amount has not been disclosed.
Meindert Boysen, director at NICE, said: “Advanced breast cancer is an incurable condition and the aim of treatment is to delay it getting worse and extend survival.
"We are very pleased to be able to recommend that abemaciclib with fulvestrant can now be provided routinely as another option for people with advanced breast cancer who have already had endocrine therapy.”
Abemaciclib is recommended for patients with hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer that has spread to other parts of the body. Some breast cancers use oestrogen in the body to help them grow.
Abemaciclib is a hormone therapy that stops the effect of oestrogen on breast cancer cells.
Different drugs do this in different ways. Those already available on the NHS were found to have worse side effects. These can include mouth sores, infections, fatigue and weight loss.
