Help for women at risk

HUNDREDS of thousands of Australian women at risk of breast cancer will today gain access to a subsidy for a preventive medicine that will reduce their risk by 40 per cent.

Breast cancer drug Nolvadex (Tamoxifen) will be available from today on the PBS to prevent breast cancer. Until now it has only been subsidised for treating breast cancer.

It is the first breast cancer prevention medicine to gain a government subsidy.

Health Minister Sussan Ley said the subsidy would save women at risk of breast cancer $200 a year if they were already paying privately for it.

“It demonstrates the Government’s commitment to preventing illness, by funding new and innovative medicines as a priority,” she said.

Nolvadex is a pill that is taken once a day and is usually prescribed for women at high risk of breast cancer for up to five years.

The treatment continues to reduce a woman’s risk of breast cancer for 10 years after she stops taking the pill.

Breast cancer expert Professor Kelly Phillips said the new subsidy was a “big advance” for Australian women.

At present the main way of reducing a woman’s risk of breast cancer if she is at high risk of the disease is to remove her breasts.

“That’s very effective but not very palatable for women – only one in five choose to have the surgery,” she said.

Four major randomised controlled trials on 25,000 women have shown Nolvadex can nearly halve a woman’s risk of breast cancer, she said.

Nolvadex reduces a woman’s risk of developing oestrogen- receptor- positive breast cancer by blocking the actions of oestrogen on breast tissue. Three out of four women who get breast cancer have this type of cancer.

Doctors are likely to recommend the medicine for women at increased risk of breast cancer based on family history.

A new treatment for HIV, Prezcobix, will also be subsidised from today. And patients with Type 2 diabetes will get access to a range of new subsidised treatments.