The Health Ministry has announced the latest list of reimbursed drugs, which will take effect on April 1. It includes 29 new therapies, including 10 designed for oncology patients. The cutting-edge treatments will be available for lung, breast, ovarian and prostate cancer, among others, meaning a better chance of effective therapy and a longer life for many patients.
New reimbursement list. Experts from the National Cancer Institute comment on the changes
Published March 31, 2025 11:36
fot. Piotr Wójcik
New cancer therapies in reimbursement
The updated reimbursement list will include durvalumab, tremelimumab and alectinib - drugs used in the treatment of lung cancer and pleural mesothelioma. In particular, alectinib, as an ALK tyrosine kinase inhibitor, opens up new therapeutic options for patients with non-small cell lung cancer diagnosed with ALK gene rearrangement. Its use after radical surgical treatment significantly reduces the risk of disease recurrence.
Lung cancer - new treatment options
Prof. Dariusz M. Kowalski, MD, head of the Behavioral Unit of the Lung and Chest Cancer Clinic at the National Cancer Institute in Warsaw, stresses the importance of reimbursement for alectinib, pointing to the results of clinical trials:
"It has been shown to reduce the risk of death or disease progression by 76%, and to reduce the risk of metastasis to the central nervous system by 78%. This is a notable advance in the treatment of this cancer."
Another breakthrough is the combination therapy of durvalumab and tremelimumab with chemotherapy, used as first-line palliative systemic treatment. The POSEIDON trial has shown that this modality increases the time free from disease progression and prolongs overall survival of patients.
Gynecological cancers
Rucaparib and dostarlimab - drugs used to treat gynecologic cancers - were also reimbursed. As Prof. Mariusz Bidzinski, MD, national consultant in gynecologic oncology, explains, "Therapy with PARP inhibitors, such as rukaparyb, increases the effectiveness of maintenance treatment in patients with ovarian, fallopian tube and peritoneal cancer."
Dostarlimab, which has previously been reimbursed only as monotherapy, will from now on be used in combination with chemotherapy in patients with advanced endometrial cancer. The RUBY trial showed that such therapy reduces the risk of disease progression or death by as much as 72% in patients with DNA repair mechanism (dMMR) abnormalities and by 36% in the overall patient group.
Breast cancer
Patients with early HER2-negative breast cancer with a high risk of recurrence will gain access to abemacycline, a CDK4/6 inhibitor. The drug is already known to treat advanced breast cancer, and now its efficacy has also been confirmed in follow-up therapy after surgery.
Dr. Katarzyna Pogoda, M.D., of the National Cancer Institute, points out that reimbursement of the drug is an important step in improving access to modern therapies, which can significantly increase patients' chances of long-term remission of the disease.
New drugs in hematooncology
Patients with hematopoietic malignancies will also benefit from the changes. Reimbursement will include acalabrutinib, used in the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia, as well as talvetamab and erlanatamab - novel bispecific antibodies used in the treatment of plasmocytic myeloma.
"These innovative therapies allow for a more personalized approach to treatment and increase the effectiveness of the fight against hematologic malignancies," concludes Professor Joanna Romejko-Jarosinska, MD, a specialist in hematooncology.
