NHS gets green light to use pioneering drug for patients with rare eye cancers

Hundreds of patients in England with a rare form of eye cancer are to be offered a pioneering drug on the NHS that kills cancer cells and boosts the chances of survival.

- Andrew Gregory

In guidance published today, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) gave the green light to tebentafusp for patients whose uveal melanoma cannot be removed with surgery, or has spread to other parts of the body.

Tebentafusp - sold under the brand name Kimmtrak - is the first treatment of its kind for uveal melanoma, which develops from cells in the middle layer of the eye, known as the uvea. The disease is thought to affect between 500 and 600 people in the UK each year.

They will need a blood test to determine if they have the genetic markers that make them suitable for the treatment.