NICE reverses Alecensa decision

NICE has reversed an earlier decision and confirmed NHS funding for Roche’s Alecensa (alectinib) as a treatment for untreated anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). This comes on the back of data from a current clinical trial that shows Alecensa can delay disease progression by approximately 15 months more than crizotinib, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, which is currently prescribed. The data also showed that, compared with crizotinib, Alecensa reduced the risk of tumours growing in or spreading to the brain or CNS by 84%.

There are around 925 people in England with untreated ALK-positive advanced NSCLC, and NICE have calculated that switching from crizotinib to Alecensa could be cost effective to the tune of £20-£30k per quality adjusted life year gained.

Dr Riyaz Shah, consultant medical oncologist, said: “This is welcome news for clinicians and patients. ALK-positive NSCLC is a rare type of lung cancer that predominantly affects younger people, non-smokers and has a propensity to spread into the brain. Alectinib has demonstrated substantial improvements in delaying cancer growth in these patients. It has also shown significant improvements in preventing and delaying cancer spread into the brain.”