KEY POINTS:
Drug agency Pharmac has signalled it will review its decision on Herceptin after the publication of findings that show a "significant benefit" to breast cancer patients receiving the drug.
The two-year follow-up data from the HERA trial, one of the largest international cancer trials in history, showed a "significant overall survival benefit" to patients who were on the drug for a year.
It found women with early stage HER-2 positive breast cancer who received Herceptin after standard chemotherapy reduced their risk of death by 34 per cent compared with those who received nothing.
The results are to appear in the next issue of the medical journal the Lancet.
While the results were first unveiled at a major oncology conference in Atlanta last June, Pharmac had been reluctant to make its decision based on a presentation.
"We have all along said we were not prepared to make any decisions based on the draft presentation," said medical director Peter Moodie.
"This is now the definitive article - I can't promise that this will necessarily change the decision, but it is a step in the right direction."
Dr Moodie said Pharmac would seek advice from its clinical committees. One was meeting next month.
But he said some issues remained, including its cost benefit and the correct length of therapy.
The Lancet editorial accompanying the study was also more circumspect. It analysed the drug's cost benefits, making mention of Pharmac as "the first to suggest that the uncertainty surrounding the HERA schedule remains too great to justify the expenditure".
It also discussed the drug's side-effects, which included a small proportion of trial participants experiencing heart damage.
"While there is cause for concern, perspective is needed: over two years, the risk of cardiac damage seems trivial compared with that of breast cancer recurrence," it wrote.
Libby Burgess, chairwoman of the Breast Cancer Aotearoa Coalition, urged Pharmac to act. "The rest of the world has already acted on it. New Zealand must now follow the 23 OECD countries already providing Herceptin for women with early HER-2 positive breast cancer."
