Three new cancer drugs approved for use in NHS

'Mirikizumab offers an option for people with moderate to severe Crohn's'

- By Katrine Bussey

THREE new treatments for cancer have been approved for use by the NHS in Scotland.

The decision was announced yesterday by the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC). It gave the go-ahead for the drug brentuximab vedotin, also known as Adcetris, to be used together with chemotherapy as a first-line treatment for adult patients with advanced Hodgkin lymphoma -an uncommon cancer that develops in the lymphatic system.

SMC vice-chairman Graeme Bryson said the treatment could "help increase how long people with advanced Hodgkin lymphoma have before their cancer gets worse".

Zanubrutinib, also known as Brukinsa, was accepted to treat adults with mantle cell lymphoma a rare type of the blood cancer non-Hodgkin lymphoma.