Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust is now offering a 60-second immunotherapy injection that can spare some cancer patients the long wait for an intravenous drip. The new treatment is a subcutaneous form of pembrolizumab, also known as Keytruda, which was previously available only through infusion that could take up to two hours per session.
The faster option cuts treatment time by up to 90 per cent and could benefit up to 200 patients a year at the trust. Depending on the cancer being treated, it will be given either every three weeks as a one-minute dose or every six weeks as a two-minute dose.
For patients, that means less time tied to a hospital chair. For staff, it means a simpler process to prepare and give, reducing the burden on pharmacy teams compared with IV infusions. The change matters now because it is being introduced at Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust as services continue to look for ways to move more treatment out of the slow lane without changing the medicine itself.
Pembrolizumab is an immunotherapy that helps the immune system recognise and destroy cancer cells, and it is used to treat 14 different types of cancer. The cancers named in the article include lung, breast, head and neck, and cervical cancers. Dr Grant Stewart said quicker administration is already bringing real benefits for patients, streamlining care while appointments remain based on individual clinical need, and added that the trust has seen excellent patient satisfaction with faster subcutaneous treatments before now.
The tension is in the trade-off that often defines hospital innovation: faster treatment should ease pressure on patients and staff, but it still has to fit around clinical need, scheduling and the realities of cancer care. Cornwall’s move does not change who needs pembrolizumab or why they need it. It changes how long they have to sit still to get it.
That is the point of the shift. If the rollout works as intended, some people with cancer in Cornwall will get the same drug in minutes instead of hours, and that can make a treatment day feel less like a disruption and more like part of life.
