Tim Pardy and wife Sharlene at Tim's first Keytruda treatment.
Tim Pardy and wife Sharlene at Tim's first Keytruda treatment.
Tim Pardy thought he'd beat it. Five months later his pancreatic cancer not only returned, but it spread. Now the father-of-three is battling stage 4 cancer and it comes with a hefty price tag. The family is spending $10,000 every three weeks in a bid to beat it. Rebecca Mauger reports.
Tim Pardy couldn't have been happier.
It was March, and he was cancer-free.
But that joy was cut short four weeks ago when the Katikati father-of-three discovered his pancreatic cancer had returned — this time in his liver.
Last year, Pardy was among the small number of New Zealanders diagnosed with pancreatic cancer every year.
Pancreatic cancer forms in the cells of the pancreas. The pancreas lies behind the lower part of the stomach and releases enzymes that help digestion and produces hormones that help to manage blood sugar.
Pardy underwent an eight-hour Whipple procedure — also known as a pancreaticoduodenectomy — which removed a third of his pancreas, gall bladder, bile duct and some of the small intestine.
The stomach was essentially re-plumbed, Pardy said.
His hospital stay was two weeks and he couldn't eat solid food for days. Having the operation has rendered him diabetic and he now has to inject insulin.
The Pardy family from left is Tim, Sharlene, George, Annalise and Lily. Photo / Liam Burston
Six months of chemotherapy followed and cancer markers were back to normal.
Pardy went back to work in March and the family (wife Sharlene, Lily, 16, Annelise, 14, and George, 13) had five months of normalcy. He even got a promotion at work.
But his cancer markers rose above normal four weeks ago. He went for a CT scan and found the cancer had relapsed in his liver and is stage 4.
The only good news about this is that his cancer is among a tiny minority — 0.8 to 2 per cent — which will respond to immunotherapy.
The drug Keytruda will stimulate Pardy's immune system to fight the cancer and is his best chance of survival. It is commonly used to treat melanoma and a number of other cancers.
Keytruda is not chemotherapy, it works with the immune system and can provide better outcomes for people like Pardy whose tumours will respond to it.
For patients who don't qualify for funded Keytruda, treatment costs $100,000 for the first year and $20,000 for the second year.
"Unfortunately this amount of money is not at our fingertips and we are calling on you to help," Pardy said.
He and his wife Sharlene have started a Givealittle page to help raise money for the treatment.
Pardy understands pancreatic cancer is not typically known to respond to Keytruda but his is among the minority with the immunology that it could do, he said.
Tim Pardy.
Pardy is not upset with the Government or Pharmac.
"I'm not angry they are not funding Keytruda for everything. Having personally worked in the public sector I think they do a good job. I'm among the 1-2 per cent, and I think they should cater to the rest, the 99 per cent."
He has successfully lodged an application request to Pharmac to fund the use of Keytruda for his cancer, however it may take a number of months for the applications to be reviewed.
"That may be too long for me but it might help others in the future," he said.
Keytruda treatment is every three weeks at a cost of $10,000 a pop. Pardy has had one treatment and has tolerated it well.
Pharmac's director of operations Lisa Williams said new cancer medicines were constantly being developed, and Pharmac understands and can appreciate that New Zealanders have high expectations about having timely access to new medicines for cancer conditions.
"There are currently 16 funding applications for pembrolizumab (branded as Keytruda) for different cancers or stages being considered by Pharmac.
"Unlike other countries, Pharmac works within a fixed budget, which means that we need to make difficult choices about which items to progress from our options for investment list within available funding. Unfortunately, we cannot, at this stage, provide a definitive timeframe for if or when any of the open funding applications for pembrolizumab would be funded."
However, a $191 million budget increase over two years, announced in May, has meant Pharmac has been able to fund a number of new cancer treatments.
"They are just the beginning. We are continuing to work our way through our options for investment list, looking at what agreements we can make with suppliers. We hope to fund many more treatments over the coming 12 to 24 months, which should include more cancer treatments.
"Following our budget increase, we issued a request for proposals from pharmaceutical suppliers for immune checkpoint inhibitors which would be used to treat New Zealanders with lung cancer.
"Merck Sharpe & Dohme, along with a number of other suppliers of immune checkpoint inhibitors, is eligible to put in a commercial bid for pembrolizumab in response to this request for proposals."
In 2016, Pharmac funded Keytruda for the treatment of patients with advanced melanoma.
Tim and Sharlene met as young Katikati College students. They have lived in Auckland and Wellington and the family returned to live in Katikati seven years ago. He works locally as a business analyst.
His next Keytruda treatment is scheduled for September 6. Thanks to Givealittle fundraising, more than $54,000 has been raised already.
If you would like to give to the Givealittle page visit www.givealittle.co.nz and put Tim Pardy's name in or www.givealittle.co.nz/cause/immunotherapy-for-tim-to-battle-pancreatic-cancer.
