Hopes $55k breast cancer drug Keytruda will get PBS listing

Women with triple negative breast cancer have been given new hope that immunotherapy drug Keytruda will get a PBS listing, saving them tens of thousands of dollars.

Women with metastatic triple negative breast cancer are pinning their hopes on the drug Keytruda being subsidised by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

Last week the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) placed the drug on its agenda to be considered for funding for eligible patients at their March 2023 meeting.

At present a script costs $11,000 for a month’s supply. Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) does not respond as well to standard chemotherapy and radiation and is a particular aggressive form of breast cancer with poorer outcomes.

TNBC occurs more often in patients who are under 50 years of age with about 2500 new cases diagnosed in Australia each year. It is more likely to recur within two to three years of diagnosis compared to 10-15 years for oestrogen receptor-positive breast cancer.

The push for Keytruda to be listed on the TGA was spearheaded by the Sunday Telegraph’s Ali’s Quest campaign last March. Alison Day suffered metastatic TNBC but she could not access it.

“There is an immunotherapy drug called Keytruda that is free for melanoma patients, but not for those with triple negative breast cancer, so I pay $6000 for a bag every three weeks. $40,000 every three months.

It is so unfair,“ she said.

Her campaign saw it listed for TNBC byt the TGA but it is yet to be subsidised.

If listed on the PBS an estimated 1500 eligible Australians with TNBC will be able to get it as a first line defence.

Natasha Couchi was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer in 2019. Photo: Michelle Swan

The immunotherapy drug, which works with a patient’s own immune system to destroy cancer cells, is already subsidised for Hodgkin’s lymphoma, late stage malignant melanoma and non-small cell lung cancer. For women with TNBC, the treatment costs $55,000 for about nine month’s supply, which is then capped. A PBS listing will eliminate the need to pay the $55,000 and reduce costs to around $40 a script.

Breast cancer oncologist Professor Fran Boyle said many women who are diagnosed with TNBC said, if Keytruda works, it will be an ongoing treatment they have to stay on.

“The response rate is about 30 per cent and, if given with chemo, about 60 per cent get a response,” Prof Boyle said. “On the PBS it will make it more accessible.”

Natasha Couchi is expecting her first child and is hopeful Keytruda is subsidises for sufferers of Triple Negative Breast Cancer. Photo: Michelle Swan

Natasha Cauchi from Kellyville has every reason to stay alive. The 32-year-old was diagnosed with TNBC three years ago and is now miraculously expecting her first child.

“I was 29 and my husband and I were travelling, we were in Norway and I found a lump the size of a pea. It grew to the size of a golf ball within a month,” she said.

In an emergency department in Norway, the doctor thought it was just a cyst but deep down Ms Cauchi knew it was bad. By the time she got back to Sydney, the lump was the size of a cricket ball.

“I had this weird thing hanging off my breast. I got in to see a surgeon and she said I think you have cancer. It was so aggressive and the scan revealed it was 7cm by 7cm by 9cm. I had five months of chemo to shrink it then I had a single mastectomy and 25 rounds of radiation therapy,” she said.

Ms Couchi froze some ovarian tissue for a future family but naturally fell pregnant earlier this year.

“I was in early menopause this year and they were going to put the tissue back in but funnily enough I’m now 22 weeks pregnant and it happened naturally,” she said.

Her “Easter miracle” is due on Easter Sunday next year.

“I’m, touch wood, clear at the moment, I’m not metastatic, but I’m the person who is so hopeful there is now a drug, if it were to come back, it will instil hope,” she said.