London:

Yuvan Thakkar, a teenager of Indian origin who was diagnosed with cancer, says he is now able to undergo life-changing surgery with the help of a fund set up by the UK’s state-funded NHS. Enjoy doing what you love after treatment, and the fund aims to provide thousands of patients with innovative treatments.

Mr Thakkar, 16, from Watford near London, is the first child in the UK to benefit from the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF)’s groundbreaking CAR T therapy tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah), NHS England reports.

This weekend, NHS England reached a milestone when, with the help of the CDF, 100,000 patients benefited from early access to the latest and most innovative treatments. The undisclosed cost of such treatment is borne by the fund.

“My life has changed so much since receiving CAR T therapy,” said Mr Thakkar, who thanked London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) for the “incredible” care he received.

“I remember I had to go to the hospital a lot and was out of school for a long time… They helped me get back into a position where I was able to enjoy a lot of the things I loved doing, like playing snooker or billiards, with Friends and family meet up and have wonderful holidays. It’s hard to imagine what things would be like without treatment,” he said.

Diagnosed with a form of leukemia when he was six, Mr Thakar received a treatment that changes the body’s immune cells to recognize and attack cancer cells.

His treatment began in 2019, when he was 11 years old and the disease relapsed after undergoing other treatments including chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant. His mother Sapna said the family had been given a “second chance” at life since the treatment was successful. The 45-year-old said that without the fast track provided by the CDF, her son would have had no other way of accessing life-saving treatment.

“It feels like our prayers have finally been answered. We remain extremely grateful for this opportunity that has been given to us, and not a day goes by that we don’t thank all the doctors and nurses who have helped us through such a long and difficult journey,” Sapna Tha Ka said.

Opened in its current form in July 2016, the CDF is used by NHS England to provide patients with rapid access to all new cancer treatments approved by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), in addition to Gather more information on the evidence of the long-term effectiveness of promising drugs. It allows faster access to more than 100 medicines to help improve, extend or in some cases save their lives.

“Bringing innovative treatments to 100,000 people with cancer in England through the Cancer Drugs Fund is a fantastic milestone for the health service and a testament to the hard work of oncologists and their teams across the country,” said NHS national professor Sir Stephen Powis said. Medical Director.

“This important fund is helping to ensure patients receive the most promising medicines more quickly than would otherwise be possible, helping cancer patients like Yuvan receive life-changing interventions and spend longer, healthier years with family and friends. Life paves the way. Friends,” he said.

The fund benefits patients with common cancers such as breast, lung, colorectal and prostate cancer, as well as patients with less common cancers such as ovarian, cervical, kidney, skin, myeloma, lymphoma and leukemia) as well as rare cancers, including thyroid cancer and cancer. bile duct.

The current CDF budget is £340m, a 70% increase on the previous CDF, and is used alongside the NHS England Innovative Medicines Fund of £340m, which the health service said means a total of £680m will be used to fast track new medicines drug.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)