Government deliberates over cancer drug

By MARTIN JOHNSTON

A new leukaemia drug that doctors describe as a breakthrough has been proven to be nearly three times more effective than the existing first-line medication.

Cancer specialists rave about Glivec, used to treat chronic myeloid leukaemia, but the Government is yet to decide whether to pay for the drug, which costs about $70,000 a year for each patient.

Up to 40 patients a year could benefit from taking Glivec capsules, although latest study results could push this estimate higher.

Researchers from a trial involving 1106 patients in 16 countries, including seven in New Zealand, have told an American Society of Clinical Oncology conference that Glivec was nearly three times more effective than the present first-line drug treatment, interferon-alpha with chemotherapy.

A characteristic of chronic myeloid leukaemia - a cancer of the blood and bone marrow - is a genetic change producing the so-called Philadelphia chromosome.

This abnormal chromosome is found only in the leukaemia cells, and results in production of an enzyme that drives proliferation of abnormal white blood cells.

Glivec inhibits the enzyme and kills leukaemia cells containing the chromosome, but appears not to affect normal cells.

It is one of the first targeted anti-cancer drugs to be tested in a clinical trial.

Sheryl Kelly, a 59-year-old patient from Tauranga who switched from interferon to taking Glivec capsules last year, said yesterday that the new drug was "marvellous stuff".

She said the side-effects from interferon made her lose her "entire quality of life". With Glivac she was now able to lead almost a normal life again. There had been a big reduction in the chromosome and her white cell count was normal.

She had told her doctors she would rather die of the leukaemia than go back on interferon.

But Glivec's maker, Novartis, has agreed to continue giving the drug to her and 29 other New Zealand patients free as long as they need it or until Pharmac, the Government's drug-buying agency, decides to pay for it.