Herceptin could prevent at least one cancer death a day, MPs told

One or two women die each day because breast cancer drug Herceptin is not fully funded, advocates of fast-tracking subsidies for the potentially life-saving medicine told a parliamentary select committee yesterday.

While bureaucrats debated cost-benefit ratios and health economics, the reality was that women were dying through missing out on the "window of opportunity" the new drug opened up for them, Libby Burgess of the Breast Cancer Advocacy Coalition told the health select committee.

Burgess spoke in support of Devonport woman Anne Hayden's 18,166-signature petition urging that the drug be fully funded.

Ms Hayden and her supporters achieved a partial victory last month when the Ministry of Health's Medsafe granted a provisional licence for the drug's use for some women who have early-stage breast cancer.

Pharmac is now considering funding Herceptin, but all 21 district health boards would have to agree to it.

Ms Hayden and her fellow signatories are desperate to fast forward that process, and yesterday enlisted the aid of three doctors, who each strongly advocated the drug's effectiveness in the fight against cancer.

Palmerston North oncologist Richard Isaacs told the committee they should be aware that in cancers where the drug was effective, the number of cases could be halved, at least during the first two to three years of follow-up, with a subsequent reduction in cost of caring for those women.

"Everybody should have access to Herceptin at some stage of their journey through cancer," Dr Isaacs said.

The high cost of Herceptin has been a stumbling block for cancer patients, with Ms Hayden telling the committee of the $127,000 her own family had spent so far so she could use the drug.

"It is wrong for women to have to bare their souls to the wider public to get appropriate treatment for a killer disease," Ms Hayden said.

"It compromises their natural human rights of life, dignity and privacy."