NICE reverses decision and now recommends use of Tecentriq plus Abraxane in metastatic triple negative breast cancer.- Roche

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published draft guidance recommending Tecentriq (atezolizumab), from Roche, with chemotherapy drug Abraxane (nab-paclitaxel), for treating patients with metastatic triple negative breast cancer. The positive recommendation follows consultation on NICE’s previous draft guidance which did not recommend atezolizumab. Atezolizumab, dosed along with nab-paclitaxel, is the first immunotherapy to specifically target triple negative breast cancer in cases where tumours have PD-L1 expression of 1% or more. It is dosed via injection every 2 weeks to patients who have not had prior chemotherapy in which their breast cancer has spread to other parts of the body and where surgery is not an option. Trial data suggests that atezolizumab plus nab-paclitaxel increases the time to disease progression by around 2.5 months versus placebo plus nab-paclitaxel (7.5 months vs 5.0 months respectively). Data also demonstrates that this combination increases time of overall survival by around 9.5 months (25.0 months versus 15.5 months respectively).