More than 75 percent of treatments in the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) which have been looked at again by NICE have received positive recommendations for routine NHS use.

This means patients will no longer need to apply to the CDF for these drugs.

NICE is currently reappraising 11 drug indications in the first group of the CDF, and of the nine looked at so far, seven have been approved at draft or final guidance stage. None have yet been rejected in final guidance, with the remaining two currently in the process.

Sir Andrew Dillon, chief executive of NICE, said: "Sensible pricing and in some cases better data, is helping to secure access to important cancer medicines as they move out of the old Cancer Drugs Fund, following reappraisal by NICE. As reappraised drugs now move to routine commissioning, funding in the CDF can be freed up and used for newer, innovative cancer treatments."

The seventh drug approved, on Thursday, is Bristol-Myers Squibb's Sprycel (dasatinib) for two indications of chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML).

"The decision by NICE to recommend dasatinib is extremely good news for patients diagnosed with CML," commented Sandy Craine, founder of The CML Support Group. "For people fighting this disease, timely access to potentially lifesaving targeted therapies such as dasatinib will very likely enable them to gain control over their disease and live out their normal lifespan. This is a progressive and forward thinking decision by NICE and will be welcomed by patients and clinicians alike throughout England."

Dasatinib will made be available to CML patients routinely who have previously untreated chronic-phase disease and chronic- or accelerated-phase disease where treatment with imatinib is not suitable.

The company offered a revised discount for the reappraisals of Sprycel, which meant that NICE could recommend the drug as clinically and cost effective for use in the NHS. Around 700 patients would be eligible for treatment with Sprycel each year.

Final guidance for dasatinib is expected to publish in December 2016, meaning routine access to the drug could be in place by March 2017.