The UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has given a positive scientific opinion for Roche’s new immunotherapy, atezolizumab, which is accessible for patients with an incurable form of bladder cancer.

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Atezolizumab is a cancer immunotherapy and disarms the cancer by blocking programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1), allowing the body's immune system to detect and destroy it.

It is being trialled as a treatment for various other cancers, alone and in combination, including colorectal cancer, breast cancer, renal cell carcinoma, small-cell lung cancer, other solid tumours, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and paediatric cancers.

With the approval granted under the Early Access to Medicines Scheme (EAMS), patients and doctors will obtain access to new treatments for serious medical conditions.

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The EAMS scheme aims to provide patients with life threatening or seriously debilitating conditions access to medicines that are not yet authorised for marketing.

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"This is an area that has seen little advance and here we have a new treatment that has the potential to make a significant difference to the lives of patients."

Roche UK general manager Richard Erwin said: “This is an area that has seen little advance and here we have a new treatment that has the potential to make a significant difference to the lives of patients.

“This decision is truly a best practice example of how we can work together with healthcare bodies to make a drug currently going through marketing authorisation available to a much needed patient population.”

MHRA has fast-tracked atezolizumab for patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma, after disease progression following one platinum-containing chemotherapy regimen before.

Bladder cancer Urothelial carcinoma accounts for more than 90% of bladder cancers in the UK, and develops from the cells of the bladder lining.

Image: Transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder. The white in the bladder is contrast. Photo: courtesy of James Heilman, MD.