The NHS has made a new injectable form of immunotherapy, nivolumab, available, meaning that patients can receive their fortnightly or monthly treatment in five minutes rather than up to an hour via an IV drip.

This will save over a year’s worth of treatment time for patients and NHS teams annually. For patients, this will mean they won’t need to spend as long in hospital, and for staff, this means that they will have more time to deliver more appointments and treatments.

NHS staff administering the jab could save up to 1,000 hours of treatment time for patients and clinicians each month. This is more than one full year of time annually.

The new jab can be used to treat 15 cancer types, including skin, bladder, and oesophagus cancers. It is estimated that around 1,200 patients in England each month could benefit.

Around 40 per cent of patients who currently receive IV nivolumab, one of the most common cancer treatments, should be eligible for the new jab.

It was approved from the UK’s medicine’s regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) yesterday (30th April).

Minister for public health and prevention Ashley Dalton said: “Britain is a hotbed of innovation, masterminding the newest tech and medical inventions to help people navigating illness. A new jab that fastens up cancer treatment is a prime example of this, so it’s fantastic to see cancer patients in England will be among the first in Europe to benefit.

“With cancer medicines getting better all the time, this government will ensure that NHS patients are among the first to access the latest treatments and technology.

“Our National Cancer Plan will transform the way we approach this disease, improving care and bringing this country’s cancer survival rates back up to the standards of the best in the world.”