Life-saving cancer treatments could help 41,000 Aussies but they aren’t funded
Alisanne Ride was given six months to live before she started an expensive treatment that eliminated the cancer from her body. But there’s one big catch when it comes to the life-saving drug.
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Mother-of-two Alisanne Ride had her world up-ended by a shock bowel cancer diagnosis but a miracle drug is now saving her life.
The problem is she’s had to raid her superannuation and her mortgage to pay for the treatment that has already doubled her lifespan and “gobsmacked” her by totally eliminating the cancer.
Ms Ride, who was a director of a law firm at age 39, was given between three to six months to live in October after learning an aggressive bowel cancer had spread to her liver.
The immunotherapy treatment she’s using, Keytruda, is approved for subsidy for some cancers but has yet to be subsidised for bowel cancer which equates to $15,000 every 3 weeks.
However, pharmaceutical company MSD has reduced the price of the medicine to $3000 every three weeks for Ms Ride, who will have to pay a total of $60,000 for treatment.
“That’s still a lot of money when you aren’t working and I have a lot of other treatment costs, other drugs for nausea not covered by the PBS,” she said.
“I’m also on tablet chemotherapy 5FU and Avastin.”
A scan in December showed Ms Ride had a complete metabolic response to treatment.
“I didn’t realise you could get an outcome like that. I thought there would be no growth or a shrinkage in the tumour. I was literally gobsmacked,” she said.
“I just turned to my husband and said what about everybody else who doesn’t have the funds to pay for this drug.
“It felt so unfair other people could not get it because they couldn’t afford it.”
Ms Ride’s recovery is spectacular but not every patient gets the same results form immunotherapies which can have dangerous side effects including death.
Bowel Cancer Australia Chief Executive Julien Wiggins said only 13.4 per cent of metastatic bowel cancer patients survive five years after diagnosis.
If the cancer has spread to another part of the body (for example, the liver or lungs) it is called metastatic cancer or secondary (advanced) cancer.
The liver is second only to the lymph nodes as the most common part of the body for bowel cancer cells to spread to.
“While there is a lot of important discussion regarding bowel cancer screening, treatment options remain vital,” said Bowel Cancer Australia Chief Executive Julien Wiggins.
“Having another treatment option for metastatic bowel cancer patients is much needed.”
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A new report has found over a five-year period, more than 41,000 Australians with advanced forms of melanoma, lung, breast, head and neck, bladder and kidney cancer could collectively benefit from an increase in life years gained of 23 per cent (16,217 additional years of life) – but only if the Federal Government includes immune-oncology therapies on the PBS for these patients.
The report, modelling the health outcomes and budget impact of immune-oncology therapies in cancer care in Australia, was produced by Adelphi Values and commissioned by the pharmaceutical company MSD.
Immunotherapies are currently approved for melanoma, non-small cell lung cancer, head and neck cancer, urothelial carcinoma, renal cell carcinoma, classical Hodgkin’s lymphoma, hepatocellular carcinoma, primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma, and merkel cell carcinoma.
There are four immunotherapies recommended for subsidy in Australia nivolumab (Opdivo®), pembrolizumab (Keytruda®) atezolizumab (Tecentriq®) and avelumab (Bavencio®).
THE LIFESAVING BENEFITS OF IMMUNOTHERAPY
*Melanoma 4.68 extra months gained
*Non-small cell lung cancer, immunotherapy first line 3.84 extra months gained
*Non-small cell lung cancer, immunotherapy used second line 6.36 extra months gained
*Triple Negative breast cancer 1.56 extra months gained
*Head and Neck cancer, immunotherapy used second line 6.6 extra months gained
*Bladder cancer, immunotherapy used second line 3.48 extra months gained
*Kidney cancer, immunotherapy used second-line 4.68 extra months gained
Source report by Adelphi Values