Nearly 100,000 cancer patients can now get fast-track access to newly approved NHS drugs – and one teenager says his treatment feels like he’s “going up”.
Yuvan Thakkar, 16, is the first NHS patient to receive a treatment using the body’s own cells to fight cancer.
He was diagnosed with a form of leukemia aged six and received ground-breaking treatment at Great Ormand Street Hospital.
The CAR-T therapy, called tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah), involves removing his immune cells and modifying them to recognize and destroy cancer cells and then reintroduce them into the body.
April, NHS It will help 100,000 patients gain access to new innovative treatments over eight years.
This is made possible by the NHS Cancer Drugs Fund, which was established in 2016 to give patients faster access to new treatments.
The fund benefits people with common cancers, such as breast, lung, colorectal and prostate cancer; as well as less common cancers, such as ovarian, cervical, kidney and leukemia, and rare cancers, including thyroid cancer and biliary tract cancer.
NHS England says patients will have access to treatments approved by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) six months faster, and all cancer treatments will be funded as soon as they are approved.
For Yuvan, who battled leukemia in hospital as a child, faster access to CAR-T therapy means he is now able to sit his GCSE exams.
Recounting his treatment, he said: “I remember receiving the cells for a while. I felt depressed” – and then being sent to intensive care “where I couldn’t do basic counting and things like that”.
The 16-year-old poses with his family and (below) draws for his GCSE art
The teen said he didn’t remember any of the treatment until it was over.
“I thought I could start getting better, and then I remembered, ‘Oh, I can do this, I can do that.’ From now on, it’s like an upward slope,” Yowan said.
Concerns over lowered cancer targets
Professor Stephen Powis, NHS England’s medical director, said treating 100,000 people was “a fantastic milestone”.
He said: “This vital funding is helping to ensure patients have access to the most promising medicines more quickly than would otherwise be the case, helping cancer patients like Yuvan receive life-changing interventions, paving the way for longer, healthier lives. The road. With family and friends.”
However, leading oncologist and co-founder of the Catch Up with Cancer campaign Professor Pat Price is concerned about those who are still struggling to access treatment due to a backlog of cancer cases.
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She said that since the outbreak, 250,000 patients have not received treatment on time.
National guidelines state that 85 per cent of people should start treatment within two months or 62 days of emergency referral, but Professor Price said the target had been lowered.
She told Sky News: “We are in the midst of the worst cancer crisis we have ever seen. This week the NHS reset its targets for 2025 and sadly they have pushed back the cancer recovery targets.”
She said next year’s target has been lowered from 85% to 70%.
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