James Gallager
The drug, called mirvetuximab soravtansine, is a known as a “biological missile” as it delivers chemotherapy drugs direct to the cancerous tissue rather than to the whole body – reducing debilitating side-effects.
Patricia Hill, 64, said the treatment was allowing her to do things – like visiting family and going to the theatre – that were impossible on conventional chemotherapy.
Up to 400 patients a year in England could benefit from the new treatment – the first for hard-to-treat ovarian cancer in 20 years.
There are nearly 7,750 cases of ovarian cancer in the UK each year.
Patricia, from north London, was diagnosed in 2023 and had multiple rounds of chemotherapy. She started on mirvetuximab in January this year.
She said the difference was like night and day, and the therapy had given her “a lot of my life back”.
She felt less tired and sick than when treated with standard chemotherapy, so felt “a lot better” and describes the drug as a “bit of a game changer”.
The new drug has allowed her to see shows in London’s West End, dine out at restaurants, attend the Chelsea Flower Show and visit family in Ireland.
“It actually opens up a lot of possibilities – you can actually go and do a lot more than you would normally do.”
The drug – mirvetuximab – extends lives too, from 12.8 months on chemotherapy to 16.5 months on the therapy, on average.
But crucially it improves quality of life. It has fewer side-effects, women are able to keep their hair and it is given by a drip every three weeks, instead of weekly with conventional chemotherapy. NHS England says it will pay for the drug. Wales and Northern Ireland normally follow the same rules, while Scotland makes its own decisions.
Dr Rowan Miller, who ran the clinical trials at UCLH, said she was “really excited” this drug was coming to the NHS after a 20-year search for better medications.
“Finally, there’s a drug that’s available, that improves survival for this group of patients and in addition, the patients get on with the treatment well and find it easier to manage than standard chemotherapy,” she told me.
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