Cancer: Immunotherapy
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to roll out immunotherapy for cancer treatment more widely.
Answered by Karin Smyth
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent body that develops evidence-based guidance on whether new medicines should be routinely funded by the National Health Service, based on an assessment of their costs and benefits. The NICE aims to publish recommendations as close as possible to the point of licensing, and the NHS in England is legally required to fund medicines recommended in a NICE appraisal, usually within three months of final guidance. NICE recommended cancer medicines are eligible for funding from the Cancer Drugs Fund from the point of a draft recommendation.
The NICE has evaluated and recommended a large number of immunotherapies for the treatment of different cancers that are now routinely available to eligible NHS patients in England.
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