Medicare rebate for rare cancer diagnosis test
Sometimes it can take years for rare cancers to be diagnosed but a new Medicare rebate for a molecular signature test could speed that up and save lives.
Illness
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Exclusive: Tens of thousands of patients with rare cancer will get a faster diagnosis from Friday with new Medicare rebates making sophisticated molecular tests affordable.
Each year more than 52,000 people are diagnosed with rare cancers, and 25,000 die from them.
Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia (RCPA) spokeswoman Professor Sandra O’Toole said rare cancers had traps that made them difficult to diagnose and it was not uncommon for a patient to wait months or sometimes years for the cause of their illness.
Under traditional microscope testing, the patient’s tumour biopsy tissue can appear benign.
But the new test can check for a molecular signature in the cancer that reveals if it is one of a rare group that could be aggressive or deadly.
This somatic gene test looks specifically for mutations in tumours which are not inherited from your parents.
It currently costs between $200 and $400, but in some cases can run into the thousands of dollars.
Prof. O’Toole said the new Medicare rebate would end this “rare cancer tax” and enable patients to get the tests that could speed up their diagnosis.
The earlier a cancer is detected and the earlier treatment is started the better the outcome for the patient.
“I believe this is going to be a game changer for how we diagnose these types of cancers,” she said.
Molecular testing will help in the diagnosis of a range of rare lung cancer, brain tumours, lymphomas, sarcomas and rare salivary gland and ovarian tumours among others.
“The RCPA is delighted that this application has been successful. Although these cancers on their own are rare, when viewed as a collective, they affect a significant proportion of the population,” Prof. O’Toole said.
Rare cancer patient Kate Vines said the new Medicare rebate would be a “huge benefit.”
“I was diagnosed 29 years ago with medullary thyroid cancer and there was no treatment for me for 28 years and my cancer progressed,” she said.
Last year Ms Vines was able to get the type of genetic test now funded by Medicare and it revealed she had a RET mutation.
“I was fortunate there was a phase two clinical trial for a drug called LOXO 292 that had only started in the last 12 months and it was the first treatment for my type of cancer,” she said.
“I’ve been on the trial for eight months and my disease is stable.”
The new test would open up treatment pathways that are currently not available to rare cancer patients and they may find they could use drugs developed for other types of cancers, she said.
Originally published as Medicare rebate for rare cancer diagnosis test