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Thousands of men in UK suffer from advanced disease prostate cancer Prepare to benefit from it New life-extending drugstalazoparib, has been approved for NHS use.
The once-daily pill, branded Talzenna, is made by Pfizerprovides an important home treatment option after receiving advice from your doctor National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice).
This medication is prescribed for: cancer has been diffused and taken in conjunction with enzalutamide, another pill that works by blocking the effects of testosterone on the body prostate cancer cell.
Crucially, it is suitable for patients who cannot receive chemotherapy or cannot tolerate other standard treat. The decision has been widely welcomed and described as a “real lifeline” for men affected by the disease.
Talazoparib works by blocking certain enzymes from repairing damaged DNA in cancer cells, causing the cancer cells to eventually die.
Trials showed that people who took the drug enzalutamide lived almost nine months longer and had longer before their cancer progressed.
Nice estimates around 2,400 people in England are eligible for the drug, which is available at NHS Start today.
Helen Knight, director of medicines evaluation at Nice, said: “We will continue to focus on what matters most to people and recommend this effective treatment, which can make a huge difference to the lives of men with advanced prostate cancer.
“Talazopanib plus enzalutamide can be taken at home, thus providing a convenient and flexible treatment option for patients who cannot receive chemotherapy and cannot take other medications and have limited treatment options.”
Nice’s advice comes just days after new analysis found Prostate cancer is now the most common cancer in the UK.
Prostate Cancer UK found that 64,425 men were diagnosed with the disease in 2022, up from 61,640 when breast cancer was once the most common cancer.
The figure is a 24% increase from last year, when 51,823 men were diagnosed with the disease.
Prostate cancer officially became the most common cancer in England a year ago, but new data from Scotland, along with data from Wales and Northern Ireland, has made UK-wide figures possible.
Amy Rylance, assistant director of health improvement at Prostate Cancer UK, said: “It can be very distressing when hormone therapy doesn’t work for men who have advanced prostate cancer and cannot have chemotherapy.
“Their treatment options have become more limited and they face a lot of uncertainty.
“That’s why the fact that this therapy is now approved is so exciting.
“For these men, the approval of talazoparib is a real lifeline, with studies showing that men who received both talazoparib and enzalutamide spent nearly nine months more with their loved ones than men who took enzalutamide alone.
“We know that treatments may be more effective for men with certain genetic variants, such as BRCA and HRR.”