Drug boosting “survival rates of terminally ill patients” should be here within months

Men with end-stage prostate cancer could benefit from a new drug.

Lutetium, which increased survival by four months in patients whose disease had spread, is safe and effective to use.

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It has been approved by the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency.

The drug watchdog is expected to decide in the autumn whether to recommend an NHS rollout.

More than 52,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer each year and 12,000 die.

About 3,500 develop advanced disease that does not respond to routine treatment.

Lutetium, given intravenously, binds to cancer cells to deliver a radioactive payload that destroys the tumor.

Prof Johann de Bono of the Royal Marsden Hospital in west London said: “This is a major clinical advance.”