KEY POINTS:
For the past 10 months, Diane McCormack's friends have been fundraising to pay her $96,000 Herceptin bill.
The Manurewa woman was told by her oncologist last year that the drug offered her the best chance of survival but she would have to pay for it herself.
"I did consider not having it. I thought it was just so much money, but I spoke with my husband, and we put things in perspective," she said yesterday.
She and husband Grant, a panelbeater, decided to sell the rental property that was to be their retirement fund to help meet the cost.
Colleagues at her work set up a trust and fundraised, as did her friends.
"I feel sorry for women out there who are not having it. It's not fair."
That is likely to change after the district health boards, who ultimately bear the cost of the drug, yesterday provisionally approved funding, conditional on the outcome of a round of public consultation and Pharmac's approval.
But the move, which offers nine weeks of treatment, is well short of the recommended 12 months, a decision that has been criticised by breast cancer advocacy groups and specialists.
If approved, the $6 million-a-year proposal would see the drug publicly funded from June 1 for about 350 women.
Pharmac deputy medical director Dr Dilky Rasiah said the plan, which would see the drug given in combination with chemotherapy, would cost a quarter of a 12- month regime.
About 50 more women could be treated and the DHBs would be able to provide the treatment without delay.
The health boards and Pharmac last year declined funding for 12 months' treatment because it was considered unlikely to provide the level of health benefits that would be expected from spending $25 million.
"With this proposal we are not looking at choosing between 12-month and nine-week funding. This is a proposal to fund nine weeks' treatment in combination with taxane chemotherapy, and we want to hear the public's feedback on this proposal," said Dr Rasiah.
Breast Cancer Aotearoa Coalition chairwoman Libby Burgess said the move was driven by cost, not sound, evidence-based medicine.
She said Pharmac had based its decision on a small Finnish trial of 54 women given nine weeks of the drug, ignoring results from several large international trials involving more than 12,000 women.
"There isn't solid scientific evidence that this nine-week treatment actually works. That is in stark contrast to the 12 months of treatment, for which there is a huge body of data.
"If Pharmac already believes nine weeks of Herceptin works, why are they giving an additional $3.2 million of taxpayers' money to a researcher in Finland to perform a study to test that?
"People should respond to the opportunity to consult, and say that New Zealand needs evidence-based medicines."
Dr Andy Simpson, chairman of the Association of Cancer Specialists, said the weight of the clinical evidence was for 12 months.
"However, we've been advised that 12 months will not be funded and there is evidence showing that nine weeks is of clinical benefit. We feel it would be inappropriate to decline that nine weeks."
A 12-month course of Herceptin is publicly funded in 23 other OECD countries including Australia.
Cancer Society chief executive Dalton Kelly said New Zealanders had as much right to 12 months of treatment as patients overseas.
