Janssen’s Zytiga receives NICE recommendation for prostate cancer

Janssen's prostate cancer therapy Zytiga has been recommended for NHS use by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).

Final guidance from the regulator has recommended the abiraterone therapy for certain prostate cancer patients, reversing the NICE appraisal committee's previous draft guidance decision.

Zytiga is intended for use in combination with prednisone or prednisolone as an option for treating metastatic hormone-relapsed prostate cancer in people who have mild or no symptoms after androgen deprivation therapy has failed, before chemotherapy is indicated.

This recommendation was based on new evidence focusing on a large group of patients treated with Zytiga in the US, which data showed that 14 percent of the group were still taking the drug after 4.4 years.

Professor Carole Longson, director of the Centre for Health Technology Evaluation at NICE, said: "I am very pleased that the new evidence submitted has meant we are able to recommend abiraterone. There are few treatments available for patients at this stage of prostate cancer, so this is very good news."