Great news for patients in England and Wales as The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) have made recommendations for venetoclax plus obinutuzumab as an option for treating chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL).
Which group of patients can access this new treatment?
It is recommended for untreated patients. This includes patients with and patients without 17p deletion or TP53 mutation.
This recommendation also gives access to CLL patients who would otherwise be suitable for the FCR or bendamustine and rituximab (BR). Access for this group is being funded through the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF). This is good news; initially these patients were not being considered in the NICE appraisal, as there was less clinical trial data available about venetoclax and obinutuzumab in this population. The patient groups, including Leukaemia Care, and the clinical experts pushed hard for this group of patients to be considered as well, as further data could be collected whilst giving some patients access using the CDF (see below for more information). This recommendation shows that this work has had an impact upon the NICE recommendation and further patients will have access as a result.
Well done everyone involved for your hard work on this, it was a privilege as ever to work with the team to get this through.
You can read the full article and supportive information here: leukaemiacare.org.uk/suppor...
A good day for CLL
Onwards and upwards
BW
Nick
