{"id":942131,"date":"2026-05-06T18:57:38","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T18:57:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/942131\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T18:57:38","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T18:57:38","slug":"northern-ireland-introduces-new-cancer-treatment-jabs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/942131\/","title":{"rendered":"Northern Ireland Introduces New Cancer Treatment Jabs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Key Summary <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul class=\"ee-ul\">\n<li><strong>An injectable form of the cancer drug Keytruda is in use across three of Northern Ireland&#8217;s five health trusts. <\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul class=\"ee-ul\">\n<li><strong>The new subcutaneous injection takes just one to two minutes. <\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul class=\"ee-ul\">\n<li><strong>Earlier, the drug was received by patients through a drip which takes more than an hour. <\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A key injectable <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pharmacy.biz\/nhs-cancer-diagnosis-system-failure-uk\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">cancer<\/a> drug which can be used to treat multiple cancers is being offered at three of Northern Ireland&#8217;s five health trusts. <\/p>\n<p>Pembrolizumab (Keytruda) is a type of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pharmacy.biz\/nhs-one-minute-immunotherapy-jab\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">immunotherapy<\/a> that helps the body&#8217;s own immune system attack cancer cells. <\/p>\n<p>The injectable version has been rolled out for patients in England and Wales from Monday. <\/p>\n<p>Normally, the drug is received by patients through a drip which takes more than an hour in hospital. However, injectables provide a quicker and less intrusive option. <\/p>\n<p>Northern Ireland health minister Mike Nesbitt, responding to a question by the Democratic Unionist Party&#8217;s Diane Dodds, confirmed it was already available in Northern Ireland and said he hoped to announce soon that all health trusts would be prescribing the drug. <\/p>\n<p>The Western, South Eastern and Northern health trusts are currently using the drug. <\/p>\n<p>In its new form, the treatment will be given every three weeks as a one-minute injection or every six weeks as a two-minute injection, depending on an individual&#8217;s cancer diagnosis. <\/p>\n<p>NHS hospitals in all parts of the UK can order pembrolizumab after approval from the medicines regulator. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Key Summary An injectable form of the cancer drug Keytruda is in use across three of Northern Ireland&#8217;s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":942132,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5011],"tags":[1204,260182,17037,67636,248983,1144,196872,16,15],"class_list":["post-942131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-northern-ireland","tag-cancer","tag-cancer-drug","tag-health-trusts","tag-immunotherapy","tag-keytruda","tag-northern-ireland","tag-pembrolizumab","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116529165027254997","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=942131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/942132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=942131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=942131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=942131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}