Breast cancer wonder drug to be rolled out on Scottish NHS within weeks

Breast cancer wonder drug

Photo by Angiola Harry on Unsplash

A new breast cancer wonder drug that can melt away tumours in weeks has finally been given the go-ahead for distribution to Scottish NHS patients. It is hoped that this new move signals the beginning of a wider rollout for patients across the UK.
The drug was initially declined by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in October last year, much to the dismay of experts and patient groups. The watchdog had concerns over the way the drug, tucatinib, had been studied even though it showed huge promise for women with advanced HER2-positive breast cancer. This is a form of disease that is very difficult to treat so new advances in medicine regarding it are highly sought after.
But last week the Scottish Medicines Consortium announced it would fund the twice-daily tablets for women who had failed to respond to other medications and had seen their cancer return. The decision came just days after new trial results were unveiled showing that tucatinib, in combination with chemotherapy and another drug, trastuzumab, also known as Herceptin, held the disease at bay for longer and boosted survival time.
Importantly, the breast cancer wonder drug, also known by the brand name Tukysa, has been shown to be highly effective in targeting tumours that appear in the brain – and experts are now studying whether giving the tablets to women with early-stage HER2-positive breast cancer might prevent the disease from ever spreading there, as it does in half of cases.
Dr David Cameron, professor of oncology at Edinburgh University who was involved in the drug’s clinical trial, said: “This is potentially a game-changing treatment for the many patients who desperately need it.”
A woman who took part in the trials for tucatinib did so because she had “nothing left to lose” after a doctor told her she should get her affairs in order. Lesley Stephen was diagnosed with HER2-positive breast cancer in 2014 at the age of 48. The disease had already spread to her bones, liver and lungs.
She then had tumours appear in her brain. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy cleared them, but cancer came back in her lungs. She was then offered a place on the Glasgow clinical trial for the breast cancer wonder drug. “I took the trial option because I had nothing to lose, and had an immediate and very strong response to it,” she said to MailOnline.
“At the start, scans of my lungs showed white splodges – tumours – everywhere. It looked like a Jackson Pollock painting. After three weeks, they had disappeared. There was some scarring left, but it was like the tumours had melted away.”
Communications consultant Lesley, who lives in Edinburgh with husband Doug, 50, a human resources director, added: “I am still on that drug now, over six years on, and the tumours in my brain have never come back.
“I have been able to live a fairly normal life with my family for over six years, and have been able to experience some of those milestones that I thought cancer had taken away from me – seeing my two eldest go to university and my youngest go to secondary school. It’s been a miracle lifesaver for me.”


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Written by

Claire Gordon

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