Kate's son and daughter are in their teens and early 20s. She says she has "dared to dream that I might be around to see them fall in love, to get married". Photo Credit: Kate Wills
Health EnglandLife-Extending Breast Cancer Drug Becomes Available on NHS
Around 1,000 women a year with incurable HER2-low breast cancer can now access the life-extending drug Enhertu through the NHS in England.
“It’s so hard keeping hope when you have stage four cancer. This gives me enormous hope,” said Kate Wills, a 51-year-old patient with HER2-low metastatic breast cancer.
Enhertu can extend patients’ lives by almost seven months on average, with some living up to three years longer. The treatment, already available in 26 other European countries and through the NHS in Scotland since 2023, was previously considered too expensive for routine use in England. Its approval follows changes to how medicines are assessed, including raising the upper cost-effectiveness threshold from £30,000 to £35,000 per quality-adjusted life year and introducing a more nuanced measure of patients’ quality of life. Wales is expected to follow England, while doctors in Northern Ireland can already prescribe the drug. The decision also follows two years of campaigning by patients and charities seeking wider access to the treatment.
