In a landmark move for cancer care, England’s NHS will soon offer a new five-minute immunotherapy jab, making it the first health service in Europe to provide this innovative treatment. The jab, an injectable form of the immunotherapy drug nivolumab (Opdivo), is approved for use in 15 different types of cancer, including lung, bowel, kidney, bladder, oesophageal, skin, and head and neck cancers.

This breakthrough comes after the UK’s medicines regulator, the MHRA, authorised the under-the-skin injection version of nivolumab, which clinical trials have shown to be as safe and effective as the traditional IV infusion. The new jab can be administered in just three to five minutes, a significant reduction from the 30 to 60 minutes required for IV treatment. Every month, around 1,200 patients in England are expected to benefit immediately, with most new eligible patients starting on the injectable form.

The impact on both patients and the NHS is substantial. For patients, the shorter treatment time means less disruption to daily life and less time spent in hospital. For the NHS, the innovation is projected to save over a year’s worth of treatment time annually, freeing up staff and hospital resources to treat more patients and reduce waiting times.

Nivolumab works by blocking a protein called PD-1 on T-cells, preventing cancer cells from turning off these immune cells and allowing the body’s immune system to target and destroy cancer. The drug is already widely used, but the new injectable version will make the process much more convenient for both patients and clinicians.

Professor Peter Johnson, NHS England’s National Clinical Director for Cancer, said, “Immunotherapy has already been a huge step forward for many NHS patients with cancer, and being able to offer it as an injection in minutes means we can make the process far more convenient. This treatment is used for 15 different types of the disease, so it will free up thousands of valuable clinicians’ time every year, allowing teams to treat even more patients and helping hospital capacity”.

The rollout is part of the NHS’s ongoing commitment to modernise cancer care and improve access to cutting-edge treatments. Supplies of the new jab are expected to arrive in the UK next month, with NHS cancer services preparing to treat the first patients shortly after.

This development is the latest in a series of NHS innovations aimed at saving patients time and improving access, following similar rollouts for injectable treatments in breast cancer, multiple sclerosis, and blood disorders.