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Novocure’s Optune TTF (tumor treating fields) – Growing international availability

Spain’s Ministry of Health has recently made Novocure’s Optune (Tumor Treating Fields) therapy available through the Spanish National Health system, for the treatment of adult patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma. This adds Spain to a growing list of countries where TTF treatment is reimbursed. This highlights the growing inequity of treatment access between the UK and other developed countries.

A tale of two cities? 

Imagine two patients, both diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) – the most aggressive form of brain cancer. Both are in their early forties, both have young families, both are reaching their maximum earning potential and have financial responsibilities, both face the devastating reality of a 14.6 month median survival. There is one thing that’s sets them apart. One lives in Madrid, the other in Manchester. The person living in Madrid will soon have access to Optune® through the Spanish national health system; the person in Manchester faces a different choice. They can pay just under £20,000 a month for private treatment or go without. This is what healthcare inequality looks like in the UK in 2025. 

With Tumour Treating Fields clearly showing benefits to patients, it is frustrating that review by NICE of this treatment is being delayed. This is creating a divide between cancer care in the UK and other developed nations. For too long there have been too few treatment options for people with a brain tumour. We understand that some people may be able to access this treatment through private healthcare, or through a clinical trial, but this isn’t possible for most. Therefore we urge NICE and Novocure to progress the review process at pace so that this treatment is accessible and affordable to our NHS and people living with the devastating reality of a Glioblastoma diagnosis.

The evidence is robust and compelling

The pivotal EF-14 trial, a large, randomised phase 3 study, compared standard chemo-radiotherapy to chemo-radiotherapy plus Optune® in adults with newly diagnosed GBM. This showed an increase in median OS from 16 months to 20.9 months. Two-year survival increased from 31% to 43% and five-year survival from 5% to 13%. Longer wear time was associated with a greater improvement in survival. The only difference in side-effects was in skin irritation.

These aren’t marginal gains. This represents precious additional time with loved ones, a chance to see another birthday, another Christmas and build precious memories.

In summary you are looking at an average of an extra 12 weeks for both PFS and OS.

“These results are spectacular – a lot better and much more convincing than we ever would have dreamt of,” said Dr. Roger Stupp, M.D., EF-14 Principal Investigator. “A new standard of care for patients suffering from glioblastoma is born.”

Real world evidence too can’t be ignored. Over 25,000 people who have used TTFields have validated these trial results. The German TIGER study[1] with 710 participants showed comparable survival outcomes, while recent data[2] from the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) in 2024 reinforced the message that people who use the device more consistently see greater survival benefits. An academic paper[3] published in May 2025 revealed an association between TTFields use and long-term survival benefit, consistent with pivotal trial findings. A more detailed exploration of the evidence can be found here.

The global landscape 

Whilst people in the UK struggle with prohibitive costs, the international landscape tells a different story. TTFields is currently marketed in the United States, the European Union, Switzerland, Japan, Mainland China and Hong Kong (China). In addition it is specifically approved in Australia, Israel and in August, in Spain.

Equity of access – why it matters

It matters because it is a breakthrough treatment that can extend life by months and preserve quality of life. The UK stands alone among developed nations in denying public

access to this proven therapy. This matters because there is human cost involved; it is about the value our society puts on the lives of people living with brain cancer. It creates a two-tier healthcare system that fundamentally contradicts NHS founding principles.

This is the impact

  • A perception that quality of life isn’t important for people living with brain cancer. TTFields offers life extension without devastating side effects.
  • Socioeconomic discrimination – only the wealthy or those with certain private health insurance can access TTFields.
  • Moral imperative – should ability to pay determine access to life preserving treatment?
  • Cultural imperative – the arbitrary denial based on cost considerations undermines the ethos of evidence-based medicine, shared decision making and patient trust.
  • NHS commitment to comprehensive care – does this only apply to traditional therapies?
  • The clinical and economic value – a better quality of life, extended survival and reduced hospitalisations, less burden on the caregiver, preserved productivity as people maintain better functional status all add to the broader economic picture.
  • Innovation and investment – a refusal to fund TTFields impacts on the perception as a leader in medical technological innovation.

The continued denial of access to TTFields in the UK represents a failure of our healthcare system to provide equitable, evidence-based care to all people regardless of their economic circumstances.

The parent in Madrid will begin TTFields knowing that their Government values their life. The parent in Manchester continues to wait, living with uncertainty, hoping for change that may not come in their lifetime, dependent on outmoded therapies that impact hugely on quality of life whilst not extending life.

Every person living with GBM deserves the same access to life-extending and life improving treatment as their international counterparts, regardless of their ability to pay. When facing life limiting diagnosis, hope shouldn’t a luxury that only the wealthy can afford.

If you’d like to read more about Optune and Tumour Treating Fields in the treatment of Glioblastoma, then you can find our more here:
Option Support UK – https://optunesupport.uk/

END

[1] Bähr O, Tabatabai G, Fietkau R, Goldbrunner R, Glas M. QOLP-31. QUALITY OF LIFE OF PATIENTS WITH NEWLY DIAGNOSED GLIOBLASTOMA DURING TTFIELDS THERAPY IN ROUTINE CLINICAL CARE: FIRST RESULTS OF THE TIGER STUDY. Neuro Oncol. 2021 Nov 12;23(Suppl 6):vi189–90. doi: 10.1093/neuonc/noab196.751. PMCID: PMC8598727.

[2] 459P – Association of tumor treating fields device usage with survival in newly diagnosed GBM: A real-world analysis of patients in the US https://cslide.ctimeetingtech.com/esmo2024/attendee/confcal_2/presentation/list?r=pt%7E15

[3] Riegel DC, Bureau BL, Conlon P, Chavez G, Connelly JM. Long-term survival, patterns of progression, and patterns of use for patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma treated with or without Tumor Treating Fields (TTFields) in a real-world setting. J Neurooncol. 2025 May;173(1):49-57. doi: 10.1007/s11060-025-04946-w. Epub 2025 Mar 31. PMID: 40163248; PMCID: PMC12040967.

Photos reproduced with permission from Novocure GmbH ©2022 Novocure GmbH – All rights reserved. Permission for global use was obtained from the patient.

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Introduction

The Brain Tumour Data Dashboard lets you explore up -to-date, population level data about the brain tumours diagnosed in England between 2013 and 2015. Using the drop down menus on the left you can select different groups of patients to view in the charts below. In these charts the number of patients for every 100 diagnoses is displayed as images of people. Patients have been grouped by date of diagnosis, type of tumour, age, gender, and region in England.

For each group of patients you can explore the different routes to diagnosis, the proportion of those who received chemotherapy or radiotherapy, as well as the survival of the patients within each group. For more information about what these metrics mean please see the glossary.

How to use

  1. Select the year of diagnosis using the drop down menu.
  2. Select your patient group of interest from the four drop down menus in the following order:
    1. Tumour group
    2. Age at diagnosis
    3. Region of England
    4. Gender of patient
  3. To view a second chart to compare different groups of patients, click the ‘compare’ button.The second chart will appear below the first chart.

*Note that the tool is best used on a laptop or tablet rather than a mobile phone*

Unavailable data

Some of the data in these charts is not available.There are two main reasons for this:

  1. How the data has been grouped

If you cannot select a patient group from the drop down menus, the data is unavailable because of how the data has been organised.

Public Health England has grouped the data like a branching tree. The bottom of the tree contains all the patients with brain tumours, and then each branch divides the data by a certain characteristics, like age, or location of tumour. But the data is divided in an order, starting with location of the tumour (endocrine or brain), then by age, region, and gender. Age is at the start because it makes a bigger difference to survival rates and treatment rates than gender or region. Sometimes, after the data has been split by type of tumour and age, there is not enough data to be split again. This is because to protect patient confidentiality groups cannot contain less than 100 patients. Because some groups cannot be split further, you cannot create ‘totals’ for everyone by region or gender. For example, you cannot see results for all ages by region, or all brain tumours by gender. If these totals were calculated and released, it might be possible to identify patients, which is why Public Health England cannot release this data.

  1. Statistical reasons and data availability

If you can select a patient group from the chart menus, but the chart does not display, the data is unavailable for one of several reasons:

  1. Data is not yet available for the selected year from Public Health England.
  2. Data is not available because the data quality is too poor to release this statistic.
  3. Data is not available as the statistic is not appropriate for this group.
  4. Data is not available because the standard error of the estimate was greater than 20% and so the estimate has been supressed.

Up to date brain tumour data

Brain tumour data may influence the decisions you make about your care. Data also helps you understand the bigger picture, or landscape, in which you find yourself.

Brain tumour data and statistics influence the focus, and work of organisations like brainstrust. The information helps us to understand the scale and impact of the problems we are setting out to solve.

This tool helps you understand the landscape in which you find yourself having been diagnosed with a brain tumour. This landscape can be particularly tricky to navigate as there are many different types of brain tumour, all of which have a different impact.

The information you see represents the most up-to-date, official, population level brain tumour data available for England. Over time we will be adding to the brain tumour data available and publishing reports, with recommendations, as a result of what we learn from this data.

The data behind this content has come from Public Health England’s National Cancer Registration and Analysis Service (NCRAS) and is a direct result of the ‘Get Data Out’ project.

This project provides anonymised population level brain tumour data for public use in the form of standard output tables, accessible here: http://cancerdata.nhs.uk/standardoutput

Incidence

The number or rate (per head of population) of new cases of a disease diagnosed in a given population during a specified time period (usually a calendar year). The crude rate is the total number of cases divided by the mid-year population, usually expressed per 100,000 population.

Malignant

Malignant tumours which grow by invasion into surrounding tissues and have the ability to metastasise to distant sites

Mortality

The number or rate (per head of population) of deaths in a given population during a specified time period (usually a calendar year). The crude rate is the total number of deaths divided by the mid-year population, usually expressed per 100,000 population.

Non-malignant

Not cancerous. Non-malignant tumours may grow larger but do not spread to other parts of the body.

Survival

The length of time from the date of diagnosis for a disease, such as cancer, that patients diagnosed with the disease are still alive. In a clinical trial, measuring the survival is one way to see how well a new treatment works. Also called ‘overall survival’ or ‘OS’.

Routes to Diagnosis

Under the ‘Routes to Diagnosis’ tab in the Brain Tumour Data Dashboard, you can explore the ways patients have been diagnosed with brain tumours. There are many ways, or routes, for cancers to be diagnosed in the NHS. A ‘route to diagnosis’ is the series of events between a patient and the healthcare system that leads to a diagnosis of cancer. The routes include:

  1. Two Week Wait

Patients are urgently referred by their GP for suspected cancer via the Two Week Wait system and are seen by a specialist within 2 weeks where they are diagnosed.

  1. GP referral

Diagnosis via a GP referral includes routine and urgent referrals where the patient was not referred under the Two Week Wait system.

  1. Emergency Presentation

Cancers can be diagnosed via emergency situations such as via A&E, emergency GP referral, emergency transfer or emergency admission.

  1. Outpatient

Outpatient cancer diagnoses include diagnoses via an elective route which started with an outpatient appointment that is either a self-referral or consultant to consultant referral. (It does not include those under the Two Week Wait referral system).

  1. Inpatient elective

Diagnosis via an inpatient elective route is where diagnosis occurs after the patient has been admitted into secondary care from a waiting list, or where the admission is booked or planned.

  1. Death Certificate Only

Diagnoses made by Death Certificate Only are made where there is no more information about the cancer diagnosis other than the cancer related death notifications. The date of diagnosis is the same as that of the date of death.

  1. Unknown

For some patients with a cancer diagnosis, there is no relevant data available to understand the route to diagnosis.

 

More information

If any of the statistical terms in this section of the brainstrust website are hard to understand, we recommend looking them up here:

Cancer Research UK’s Cancer Statistics Explained

http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/health-professional/cancer-statistics/cancer-stats-explained/statistics-terminology-explained#heading-Seven

If you are looking for help understanding terms relating specifically to brain tumours, and treatment, then the brainstrust glossary is available here:

https://www.brainstrust.org.uk/advice-glossary.php