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Patients across the North East with certain types of blood cancer will have a new treatment made available to them, it has been announced.
The drug Plerixafor has been made available for patients with myeloma and lymphoma, after the North of England Cancer Drug Approvals Group agreed to the decision.
Clinicians who treat patients with blood cancer requested that the drug be made available. It now means that patients have an increased chance of survival as they can have a transplant of stem cells.
Steve Williamson, consultant pharmacist with the North of England Cancer Network, said: “A small number of patients with lymphoma and myeloma are not able to harvest stem cells which means they are not able to have a transplant which would increase their chance of survival.
“This drug, Plerixafor, has been shown to be effective for this particular group of patients.”
Copyright Press Association 2009
North of England Cancer Network
