NICE recommends use of Tecentriq in non-small cell lung cancer.- Roche.

The UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has recommended the use of Tecentriq (atezolizumab) from Roche to treat patients with non-small cell lung cancer whose disease has progressed following standard chemotherapy. This follows an earlier negative decision for lung cancer.

The decision is in part based on clinical data which showed that people with NSCLC treated with Tecentriq lived a median of 13.8 months, 4.2 months longer than those receiving standard chemotherapy, while also experiencing less side effects.

Comment: Tecentriq was approved by the FDA in October 2016 to treat metastatic non-small cell lung cancer patients who have disease progression during or following platinum-containing chemotherapy.In September 2017 the European Commission granted a marketing authorisation for Tecentriq as a monotherapy for the treatment of people with locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer after they have been previously treated with chemotherapy regardless of PD-L1 status. People with EGFR-activating mutations or ALK-positive tumour mutations should also have received targeted therapy before receiving Tecentriq.