Hundreds of patients in England will receive a cancer-treating injection for the first time from Britain's government-run national health system which could cut treatment times by up to three quarters.
Following approval from the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), NHS England said hundreds of eligible patients treated with the immunotherapy, atezolizumab, were set to have "under the skin" injection, which will free up more time for cancer teams.
"This approval will not only allow us to deliver convenient and faster care for our patients, but will enable our teams to treat more patients throughout the day," Dr Alexander Martin, a consultant oncologist at West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust said.
NHS England said Atezolizumab, also known as Tecentriq, is typically administered to patients intravenously, directly into their veins, via a drip. Depending on the patient and how difficult it is to obtain a vein, this procedure may take up to an hour.
"It takes approximately seven minutes, compared with 30 to 60 minutes for the current method of an intravenous infusion," Marius Scholtz, Medical Director at Roche Products Limited said.
Genentech, a division of Roche, produces atezolizumab, an immunotherapy medication that stimulates the patient's own immune system to find and eliminate malignant cells. A variety of malignancies, including lung, breast, liver, and bladder cancers, are being treated via transfusion for NHS patients.