Children and adults who haven’t responded to therapies for various blood cancers have been offered new hope as the NHS has approved some lifesaving drugs.

Around 200 patients a year nationwide, including young children, are set to benefit from newly approved drugs for rare blood cancers.

NHS England has given the go-ahead to two cutting-edge treatments, to be offered when others have failed. 

The first, Dabrafenib, is a tablet treating histiocytic neoplasms, a group of rare, potentially fatal blood cancers. Without effective treatment, around a tenth of children with high-risk types of the disease die within a year of diagnosis, while 70% of adults will die within five years.

The new treatment blocks proteins that help cancer cells grow, slowing or stopping the growth. Its approval will also mean patients can take the drug at home instead of in hospital.

Revised treatments for Hodgkin Lymphoma 

Meanwhile, children from the age of eight who have Hodgkin Lymphoma that has relapsed or not responded to initial treatment are also set to benefit from a new drug combination.

It will fuse Brentuximab, Vedotin and Bendamustine to target cancer cells more precisely, binding to a protein on cells’ surface and delivering a cancer-killing drug directly into it.

Patients will receive this through intravenous drip. The combination can achieve high remission rates, is generally well tolerated and can help patients become well enough to receive a potentially life-saving stem cell transplant. 

For between 10% and 30% of patients – around 180 to 540 people – Hodgkin Lymphoma typically returns or doesn’t respond to standard treatment.

“This is a landmark moment for people with histiocytic neoplasms and Hodgkin Lymphoma, giving them access to new treatment options they might not otherwise have had. For people living with the uncertainty of these rare cancers, these innovative therapies could offer something that can be hard to find – renewed hope – while allowing many patients to take their treatment at home instead of in hospital, so they can spend more time living their lives,” commented Peter Johnson, national clinical director for cancer at NHS England.

The government is prioritising rare cancers’ treatments through its 10 Year Cancer Plan, while these rollouts were made possible by NHS England’s recently expanded Clinical Priorities Advisory Group. The team assess specialist medicines, medical devices and treatments by their benefits, clinical effectiveness and value for money.