Tecentriq added to UK's EAMS for late-stage breast cancer

In combination with chemotherapy, Tecentriq (atezolizumab) can now be used by UK patients with unresectable locally advanced or metastatic triple negative breast cancer whose tumors have PD-L1 expression of at least 1%.

Access is now possible because the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has granted a positive scientific opinion for Roche's (ROG: SIX) immuno-oncology drug for the Early Access to Medicines Scheme (EAMS), which provides earlier availability of promising new unlicensed medicines to UK patients that have a high unmet clinical need.

Explaining why Tecentriq has received the positive opinion, an MHRA document states: “In patients with triple-negative breast cancer that has progressed to advanced stage disease, where it is locally inoperable or has spread to other parts of the body, the cancer is usually poorly responsive to chemotherapy and patient survival is a matter of months.