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Enhertu Now on NHS in England for HER2-Low Breast Cancer

4 hours ago

England's NHS can now prescribe Enhertu for HER2-low incurable breast cancer, two years after Scotland. About 1,000 women a year stand to benefit.

Women in England with an incurable form of breast cancer can now receive the drug Enhertu through the NHS, ending a two-year wait that began when a health body ruled the treatment too costly. Prescribing became possible on Thursday, and doctors in Northern Ireland can also offer the drug ahead of a formal sign-off. Wales is expected to allow it soon.

Enhertu adds close to seven months of life on average, and some patients live as long as three years longer. The change is set to reach around 1,000 women a year who have a particular form of the disease known as HER2-low. Patients in Scotland have been able to get the drug on the NHS since 2023, and it is already used in 26 other European countries.

The path to approval was long. In 2024, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) concluded that Enhertu did not offer enough value for its price. Charities and patients pushed back and kept up their campaign from that point on.

Health Secretary Yvette Cooper described the medicine as potentially life-changing and said the decision would let NHS patients gain from it at last. She credited the outcome to the charities and campaigners who refused to give up.

Breast Cancer Now welcomed the ruling but tied it to loss. The charity said many people never reached the treatment during the delay, and some of them died. Chief executive Claire Rowney said the moment was one they had finally achieved, yet she stressed that the celebration could not ignore what the wait had cost.

Kate Wills

Kate Wills, 51, carries both the relief and the grief. She lives with HER2-low metastatic breast cancer that has reached her bones and lungs, though little about her daily life points to a terminal diagnosis. She holds a demanding job, is married, and is raising two children. Her online posts show a busy, contented existence, broken only now and then by a hint of a medical visit.

Knowing the drug could extend her life while remaining out of reach was, in her words, deeply painful. When told it would be available, she broke down in tears. She said she was overjoyed and could scarcely take it in, and described how difficult it is to hold on to hope with stage four cancer. The news, she said, restored that hope.

Her children are teenagers and in their early twenties. Wills had set herself the goal of living long enough to see her youngest finish school. Now, she said, she has allowed herself to imagine being present when her children fall in love and marry. Even so, her thoughts turned first to the women she knew who did not receive the drug in time.

Jeannie Ambrose

One of them was Jeannie Ambrose, who spoke to reporters two years ago at the age of 53, still full of energy and determination. She said then that she was not ready to die and wanted to keep living, and she resented spending her remaining time campaigning rather than with family and friends. Jeannie Ambrose died in January this year.

Enhertu, HER2-low breast cancer, NHS England, NICE, metastatic breast cancer, Breast Cancer Now, Yvette Cooper, cancer drug approval

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