People with hormone-relapsed prostate cancer that has spread to other parts of the body and have been treated with the cytotoxic drug docetaxel, should be given access to enzalutamide through the NHS, NICE has confirmed in final draft guidance. In previous draft recommendations NICE had not recommended enzalutamide in the group of people that had previously been treated with abiraterone.
Professor Alan Ashworth, Chief Executive of The Institute of Cancer Research, London, said: “We are very pleased that NICE has listened to the concerns we and others have raised, and dropped a controversial restriction on the use of enzalutamide from its draft guidance. This restriction would have prevented men with advanced prostate cancer from accessing enzalutamide after receiving another life-extending drug, abiraterone, which was discovered and developed here at The Institute of Cancer Research.
“This change will have an important effect on thousands of men with advanced prostate cancer by allowing them to access both abiraterone and enzalutamide after receiving chemotherapy, and therefore giving them several more precious months of life.”