Beginning June 4th, hundreds of women in England with ovarian cancer who have stopped responding to standard chemotherapy will have access to a new life-extending drug on the NHS.
The drug, mirvetuximab soravtansine, is a targeted therapy described as a 'Trojan horse'. It combines a chemotherapy agent with an antibody that recognizes ovarian cancer cells displaying the folate receptor alpha protein. Once attached, the chemotherapy is absorbed inside the cell, destroying it from within.
A global clinical trial, involving eight NHS hospitals, found that patients treated with the drug lived nearly four months longer compared to those on standard chemotherapy. The treatment also slowed cancer progression.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence approved the drug for women with epithelial ovarian, peritoneal, or fallopian tube cancer whose tumors contain the folate receptor alpha protein and are no longer responding to platinum-based chemotherapy.
Because the drug specifically targets cancer cells, side effects may be more tolerable than traditional chemotherapy. It is administered intravenously once every three weeks over two to four hours.
This is the first new addition to NHS ovarian cancer treatment in over 20 years. The NHS estimates approximately 400 patients in England could benefit each year.
NHS national clinical lead for cancer drugs, Professor Ruth Plummer, called it "the most significant breakthrough in NHS treatment for these hard-to-treat ovarian cancers in over two decades."