New drug Nivolumab has proven very effective in treating kidney cancer. A third of patients with advanced kidney cancer who were put on an expensive new cancer drug were still alive five years later. The drug is also effective in reducing the size of tumours in lung cancer patients.
Both sets of results were presented to the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago over the weekend. Prof John McCaffrey, consultant medical oncologist at the Mater Hospital, Dublin, said: “It is rare for advanced kidney cancer patients to survive beyond five years – less than 10pc. Early access to these agents will be an imperative for Irish kidney cancer patients and their families.”