Merseyside woman benefits from new five-minute breast cancer treatment

A woman from Merseyside has become one of the first patients to benefit from a new treatment for breast cancer which takes just five minutes to administer.

The Phesgo treatment is being rolled out across the NHS in a bid to dramatically reduce the amount of time that patients need to spend in hospital.

Paula Lamb, 51, from Newton-le-Willows, was prescribed the treatment by her consultant at The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre following a NHS England deal with the manufacturer to make it available at no extra cost.

Phesgo will now be offered to all eligible patients with HER2-positive breast cancer, which accounts for 15% of all cases. It can be given alongside chemotherapy or by itself.

Phesgo combines two treatments - pertuzumab and trastuzumab - that are currently given separately into a single injection.

Instead of having each drug separately as an intravenous infusion (i.e. via a drip) that can take up to two-and-a-half hours, Phesgo only takes around five minutes to prepare and administer a single injection into the thigh.

Paula was diagnosed with advanced breast cancer in 2014 and has been receiving trastuzamab and pertuzamab regularly since then.

Along with radiotherapy, surgery and other treatments, it has proved very effective at managing her cancer but it has involved her spending around two hours in hospital every three weeks.

Now she can get the same benefits from an injection that only takes a few minutes.

Paula had her first Phesgo treatment last Wednesday (31 March) at the Lilac Centre at St Helen's Hospital, where there is a clinic for patients from The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre who live in the local area.

The treatment will now be rolled out across England to around 3,600 newly-diagnosed patients each year, along with other patients like Paula who are currently receiving the same drugs by infusion.

It is the latest in a series of NHS innovations in cancer care during the COVID-19 pandemic. As well as reducing the amount of time patients need to spend in hospital, Phesgo also frees up clinical time and chemotherapy treatment chairs for other people receiving cancer care.

The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre and wider NHS has continued providing cancer care throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since the start of the pandemic, 228,000 people in England have started NHS treatment for cancer, 95% of whom did so within a month.

Hospitals across England have also carried out more than two cancer procedures for every patient they treated for coronavirus in 2020.

Paula Lamb, 51, from Newton-le-Willows, said: "It feels amazing to be one of the first people to receive this treatment through this NHS scheme.

"When I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2014, I was put onto pertuzumab and trastuzumab, along with chemotherapy, and I responded so well that I no longer needed a hip operation to deal with secondary tumours in the bones there.

"It's great that I can now get the same drugs in one injection that only takes a few minutes."   

NHS national clinical director for cancer, Peter Johnson, said: "The NHS has continued to adopt new treatments rapidly throughout the pandemic, to improve cancer care for patients.

"This new injection, which can substantially cut treatment time for people with breast cancer, is the latest in a series of changes which have meant the NHS has been able to deliver vital cancer treatment while keeping patients safe from Covid. 

"I am delighted that this is now available to people having breast cancer treatment, limiting the time they need to spend in hospital and giving the NHS another way to continue treating as many cancer patients as possible, as we have done throughout the pandemic."