Lung cancer patients denied access to treatment during awareness month 2

Desperately sick lung cancer patients who have failed treatment with chemotherapy have been denied subsidised access to a new medicine that could potentially shrink their tumours, stabilise their disease and improve their quality of life.

(Please see Lung cancer patients denied access to treatment during awareness month 1 for the complete article).Lung cancer patient, Ms Sirje Lassi, said today she was concerned about the restrictions the PBAC had placed on Iressa being reimbursed.Ms Lassi, aged 34 from Winston Hills, NSW was on Iressa for 13 months. She was diagnosed with lung cancer two and a half years ago and was shocked as she was not a smoker.”Iressa has given me an extra 13 amazing months of great quality of life that I would not otherwise have had,” she said.”I have been able to keep up my job, go to Europe to visit family, climb mountains, be active in my church and look after my foster child part time.”Ms Lassi was instrumental in setting up a lung patient support group of a consumer organisation, Cancer Voices, after her diagnosis as she wanted to speak to people who had been through her experience.Dr Paul Mitchell, Head of Cancer Services, Austin Hospital, Melbourne said he was also concerned about the PBS restriction as no other country in the world has this restriction.”Further information has emerged since the first reports in April 2004 suggesting that patients without the gene mutation may also benefit,” Dr Mitchell said. “The information we have now is that the gene test will only pick up some of the patients who might benefit.”Dr Mitchell said the targeted approach of Iressa offered patients with advanced lung cancer the prospect of rapid relief of debilitating symptoms, without the toxic side effects of chemotherapy enabling them to return to a more normal life.”About 40 per cent of advanced lung cancer patients who have previously had chemotherapy can benefit from Iressa in terms of improvement in their lung cancer symptoms, and in up to 20 per cent of patients their tumour will shrink,” he said.”The once-daily oral dose and rapid improvement in disease-related symptoms- such as chest pain, shortness of breath and coughing- provide important quality of life benefits to patients.”AstraZeneca Managing Director, Jeays Lilley said today that the company was surprised and disappointed by the PBAC’s decision not to reimburse Iressa for a wider group of patients, given the lack of alternative treatments for lung cancer.”The irony of the situation is that during lung cancer awareness month, the PBAC decision will mean that the majority of desperately sick cancer patients, who have already failed toxic chemotherapy, will not have access to a medicine that could potentially bring them clinical benefit and grant them precious extra quality of life” Mr Lilley said.”This decision is another set back for lung cancer patients.”The restricted listing was based on preliminary data from a case series of only 25 patients, which suggested patients with a gene mutation in their lung tumour might be more likely to have a dramatic response to treatment with Iressa. Gene mutations are thought to occur in only 10 per cent of advanced lung cancer patients.Clinical data shows that Iressa could provide clinical benefit to a broader group of lung cancer patients, than just those with gene mutations.”We do not believe it is appropriate to restrict Iressa this way because a new analysis of a much larger group of patients has shown that the relationship between gene mutations and response to Iressa is not at all clear,” Mr Lilley said.Mr Lilley said the PBAC’s decision was puzzling because experts in the field, including the researchers who first suggested a link between mutations and Iressa, supported AstraZeneca’s proposal for broader access to this important treatment.”We will continue to do everything we can to pursue a wider listing for Iressa so that all patients who can benefit from it are able to gain access to it,” he said.