House debates

Tuesday, 20 June 2006

Adjournment

Breast Cancer: Herceptin

9:00 pm

Photo of Sharon BirdSharon Bird (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

I take the opportunity in the adjournment debate tonight to provide an update to the House on a very important issue in my electorate and that is the process of registering the drug Herceptin with both the Therapeutic Goods Administration and—hopefully, I understand, by July—the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. I have put on the record of the House before the case of a lady in my area, Michelle Radford, whose husband had written to me at the time when she had consulted her specialist and been told that for her the best opportunity of ensuring there was no relapse of breast cancer was to undergo a treatment with the drug Herceptin and that that was estimated to cost $60,000. Michelle has young children and for her family the only opportunity to access that drug would have been by selling their house. This is what prompted her husband to write to me.

I am glad to say that since that time there has been progress by the drug company Roche in actually applying to the TGA for approval for the drug to be used in first-stage cancer. I understand from the TGA, on 21 April, that they have actually approved the application to extend the use of Herceptin for the treatment of patients with HER2 positive, localised breast cancer when used in conjunction with a chemotherapy regime. There is a little bit of disappointment in the announcement in that the decision has been approved for node positive disease or node negative disease with a tumour diameter greater than 20 millimetres. That has caused some concern to some women in my electorate who think that putting the rider on it that the tumour has to be of a particular size may cause some future problems for women. For example, if their tumour is 18 millimetres in diameter, they then face the question of whether they should find $60,000 to undergo the treatment or wait till the tumour has grown to an appropriate size. However, it is progress and I am hopeful that the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme processes will approve the listing so that women do not face that particularly traumatic choice of trying to find that sort of money or waiting and seeing.

I acknowledge the fact that our community has got behind Michelle and her family. I suggested to some friends of Michelle’s that perhaps we could set up a trust fund for the treatment and see if we could raise a significant proportion of the cost from the local community to help the family out and avoid their having to sell the family home at what is a particularly difficult time for the family anyway. I could not imagine how devastating it would be for the children, already dealing with mum being sick, to also have to deal with the sale of the family home. Our community, probably like most of the communities in all of our electorates under these circumstances, rallied very strongly behind Michelle and her family. I attended a pink ribbon fundraising night that was organised for Michelle only a fortnight ago and, to date, the community has raised just over $50,000 of the $60,000 cost of the treatment. That has meant that the Radfords have been able to retain their family home.

My hope is that we can progress the approval of the drug so that, in future, women will not have to make that decision and communities will not have to step in to do the fundraising that is needed. The reality for something like breast cancer is that the Cancer Research Council and breast cancer support groups are already making significant fundraising attempts in our communities. This support should be provided through the proper Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme process. I am very hopeful that will be the outcome in July when a determination is made by the processes of the PBS in the interests of the women and their families in all of our communities.