NHS cancer jab could mean patients spend hours less in hospital

Key developments are emerging from the global stage. NHS cancer jab could mean patients spend hours less in hospital 6 minutes ago Share Save Add as preferred on Google Jim Reed Health reporter NHS England Shirley Xerxes was one of the first in the UK to receive the injectable form of Keytruda on the NHS A new injectable form of a key cancer drug could see thousands of NHS patients across the UK spending far less time in hospital. Keytruda, which is already used to treat multiple cancers, is a type of immunotherapy that helps the body's own immune system attack cancer cells. Since 2015, NHS patients have received the world's best-selling drug through a drip – or intravenous infusion – which can take more than an hour to administer in hospital.

NHS England says the new injection should cut that procedure to just a couple of minutes, saving patients and staff valuable time. Shirley Xerxes from St Albans in Hertfordshire was one of the first to receive the jab at the Mount Vernon Cancer Centre near Watford. The 86-year-old said she was in the chair "for a matter of minutes instead of an hour or more".

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"It's made such a difference and gives me more time to live my life, including spending more time gardening. " Colin Xerxes Shirley says the faster treatment has given her more time to enjoy life About 14,000 cancer patients in England start on a course of Keytruda, also known as pembrolizumab, each year, with most of those likely to be moved over to the injectable version. The drug can currently be used to treat 14 different types of cancer in the UK, including lung, head and neck, cervical and breast.

In its new form, the treatment will be given every three weeks as a one-minute injection or every six weeks as a two-minute injection, depending on an individual's cancer diagnosis. It is the third immunotherapy drug of its type that can be given via a jab on the NHS after a new form of another treatment, Opdivo or nivolumab, was introduced in some hospitals last year. What is immunotherapy?

Cancer can hide from the body's own immune system by producing proteins that send a "stop signal" telling our immune cells not to attack. Some scientists describe this as the disease hiding behind an "invisibility cloak". Immunotherapy works by blocking the signal allowing those cancer cells to be more easily recognised and destroyed.

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That discovery won two scientists - James Allison and Tasuku Honjo - the Nobel Prize for medicine in 2018 . Keytruda was one of the earliest immunotherapy drugs to be approved, first for skin cancer and later for other forms of the disease. By most measures it is now the biggest-selling prescription medicine in the world, with global sales of $30bn (£22bn) in 2025.

Until now, hospital pharmacy teams have had to prepare a bag of the drug under sterile conditions which is then given as an infusion into the vein through a cannula. NHS England's national clinical director for cancer, Prof Peter Johnson, said that switching to a standard, speedy injection would save time and benefit patients.

The development has drawn wide international attention, with diplomatic circles watching closely.