Thread: This is really disappointing news. We always hope for a "yes" first time round and especially for this treatment where patients have been waiting far too long already. But, we remain determined to get it over the line. https://twitter.com/MyelomaUK/status/1303352408127533062

There are challenges ahead but it's worthwhile remembering that almost every NICE approval of a myeloma drug in recent years has had an initial "no". There is still the opportunity to get this approved.

In Myeloma XI, led by @profghjackson we have an incredible set of data and NICE have recognised the benefits that lenalidomide maintenance delivers - but they still have questions...

What treatments would patients be most likely to have after len maintenance? What difference does it make to long term survival? What does the picture look like if we take into account other clinical trials? NICE have asked the company to provide answers to these questions.

All new treatments for myeloma are important, but this can benefit so many patients and deliver longer and better quality of life at an early stage in the pathway. Everyone must pull together to get this over the line and @MyelomaUK will be doing all we can to make this happen.

Postscript: patients in the clinical trial started len maintenance around 100 days after their auto SCT. If approved we would expect it therefore to be patients in this group who are eligible, not unfortunately patients who had an HDT-SCT earlier than than that eg some years ago