Tens of thousands of patients are set to benefit from a 'lifeline' one-minute cancer injection being rolled out on the NHS. The new pembrolizumab jab, also known as Keytruda, will save hours spent in immunotherapy treatment, which previously required patients to receive the drug via a drip over extended periods.
How the New Jab Works
The injection works by instructing the body's immune system to recognise and kill cancer cells. It is effective against more than a dozen types of cancer, including lung, breast, head and neck, and cervical cancer. Until now, patients had to spend long periods on a drip to receive pembrolizumab.
The new injectable form of immunotherapy reduces the time needed for treatment by up to 90%. Patients can receive the drug as a one-minute injection every three weeks or a two-minute injection every six weeks, depending on their cancer type.
Patient Experiences
One of the first NHS patients to receive the new injection was 89-year-old Shirley Xerxes from St Albans, Hertfordshire, who has bowel cancer. She was treated at the Mount Vernon Cancer Centre, part of East and North Hertfordshire Teaching NHS Trust. She said: 'Having the injection has been great and the nurse was so good, so kind. I just had it in my tummy. But it's not as quick as a Covid jab. It takes a couple of minutes. I feel appreciative, really. I mean, we don't have to pay for it. It's good, I'm very appreciative. It's been wonderful. Now I can spend more time on gardening, especially now spring is here.'
Another patient, Stephen Friend, 67, who has melanoma, said: 'This new process takes away a lot of the stress, I think. Up until now I've been extremely healthy, I've not really used the NHS up until now. And it's just been amazing.'
Benefits for the NHS
Moving to the ready-to-use injection will free up valuable staff time. Currently, hospital pharmacy teams must carefully prepare the drug in intravenous bags under sterile conditions, which is time-consuming. Around 14,000 patients start pembrolizumab therapy each year in England, and most are now expected to switch to the jabs.
Vikash Dodhia, head of pharmacy at Mount Vernon, explained: 'Generally with immunotherapy treatment, patients have to have an IV drip, essentially that's probably about 100mls – so about a third of a coke can almost. That's got to go through the veins and it will take about half an hour or 45 minutes for that to be administered to them. The patient also then has to have a cannula inserted into their veins to receive that particular treatment. With this new way of giving it, it's 4mls – less than a teaspoon… So for a patient, it means they get all of that time back. For staff, if you're able to give the treatments much quicker, that means you can actually treat more patients through the treatment chairs. So in a unit like this we are able to then accommodate more patients in a given day and actually treat patients quicker. And we all know, particularly in cancer, the sooner you start the treatment, the better benefit there is. And the drug itself, in terms of cost to the NHS, is exactly the same.'
MSD analysis suggests the injection cuts the amount of time staff spend on preparing treatment by 44%.
Quicker, More Convenient Cancer Care
Pembrolizumab, manufactured by pharmaceuticals giant MSD, works by blocking a protein called PD-1, which acts as a brake on immune responses, releasing the immune system to recognise and attack cancer cells.
Professor Peter Johnson, NHS national clinical director for cancer, said the new rapid jab means patients 'can get back to living their lives rather than spending hours in a hospital chair'.
Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting said: 'As a cancer survivor, I know how important quick treatment is, and this rollout will offer quicker, more convenient care, saving patients time and helping them in their recovery with less time in hospital. Not only that – it'll also free up valuable time so clinicians can care for even more people and potentially save even more lives.'
