NICE recommends Lilly's pemetrexed and cisplatin for UK lung cancer patients

The UK's National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has recommended the use of US drug major Eli Lilly's chemotherapy Alimta (pemetrexed) in combination with cisplatin as a first-line treatment for patients with adenocarcinoma or large-cell carcinoma non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) within its Final Appraisal Determination (FAD), meaning a victory for the drugmaker. Final Guidance on the use of pemetrexed and cisplatin within this indication is anticipated to be published in September as a result of the FAD.

Lilly says it welcomes this FAD decision, which means that UK  patients are to benefit from publicly-funded access to the combination as first-line treatment. Lung cancer is the UK's biggest cancer killer and the second most common cancer in the UK after that of the breast, accounting for one in 20 of all deaths nationwide.

Nick Thatcher, Professor in Medical Oncology at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust said: 'this decision is truly significant and is fantastic news for lung cancer patients in the UK and the clinicians who have been campaigning for access. 'It is NICE's first FAD incorporating the use of histology. A histological diagnosis, the microscopic analysis of a tumor biopsy, allows the determination of exactly which type of NSCLC is present, thereby allowing treatments to be more targeted and therefore more effective. This 'targeting' of patients has helped NICE confirm that pemetrexed and cisplatin is a clinically and cost effective treatment in patients with a confirmed diagnosis of adenocarcinoma or large-cell carcinoma. The decision reflects the advancement pemetrexed in combination with cisplatin brings, with clinicians being able to target the right patients with the right treatment based on histological diagnosis.'