Professor Russell Petty is Chair of Oncology at the University of Dundee. He is leading a pioneering project to change the way an immunotherapy drug is delivered to cancer patients — a move that could improve access to treatment while saving the NHS millions of pounds each year.
The University of Dundee will host the first UK trial of a new way of giving immunotherapy. Immunotherapy drugs, given alongside chemotherapy, are known to work better and for longer than chemotherapy alone in many cancers. Patients usually receive both treatments for several months, then continue on immunotherapy alone for up to two years.
At present, immunotherapy is given intravenously in hospital — a process that is inconvenient for patients and places heavy demands on NHS nursing staff and resources.
This new worldwide trial will test whether the immunotherapy drug tislelizumab can instead be given to patients with oesophageal and gastric cancer as a simple injection under the skin. If successful, this could pave the way for immunotherapy to be delivered closer to home — in local clinics, or potentially even self-administered, much like insulin injections for people with diabetes.
Professor Petty is Chief Investigator for the UK arm of the trial, which is also running at sites across China, Europe and the United States.
“We are delighted that Dundee will be the first UK centre to recruit patients for this trial. This is all about bringing the benefits of existing and new drugs to as many patients as possible, as quickly as possible.
Tislelizumab has already been used to treat certain cancers for years. But the way it’s currently given adds pressure to hard-pressed NHS oncology services. At the moment, patients need to be connected to an intravenous drip for one to two hours. A simple injection would take around 10 minutes — meaning up to 10 patients could be treated in the time it currently takes to treat one.
In future, this could mean patients no longer need to attend hospital for every dose, helping to reduce waiting lists and treatment costs at a time when the NHS is under real strain.
Before that can happen, though, we need to prove that the new injection works at least as well as the intravenous version, with no extra side effects — and that’s what this trial will help us find out. If it succeeds, the same approach could potentially be used for other immunotherapy drugs and cancers in future.”Professor Russell Petty
