Shock rise in breast cancer
Increasing need for lifesaving medicine hits health budget. Bevan Hurley and Deena Coster investigate.
Breast cancer rates among New Zealand women are rising at faster than predicted levels, and the increased demand for lifesaving drugs has blown a hole in the budget of at least one district health board.
The latest available figures show that 3301 women were diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015 – 300 more than the Ministry of Health had projected.
In the Nelson-Marlborough region, the number of women seeking Herceptin, a drug which treats around one in five breast cancer sufferers, had doubled in the past 12 months.
Nationwide, the Government drug purchaser, Pharmac, says the number of patients being given Herceptin increased 17 per cent to 937 in the past year, at a cost of an extra $5 million.
Breast cancer survivor Maddy Cooper credits Herceptin with helping to save her life.
She was just 27 and preparing to go on a belated honeymoon when she was diagnosed after doctors noticed a suspicious lump in her breast in 2014.
Cooper recalls how, within two weeks, she was scheduled for a seven-hour surgery – a skin-sparing mastectomy removing the tissue of her right breast.
‘‘The first few days post-surgery were a painful, surreal blur with tubes and dressing sticking out in all directions.’’
After surgery, Cooper, a public relations professional, faced six months of chemotherapy, followed by a year and a half of Herceptin, a drug which treats the HER2 positive form of breast cancer.
‘‘I felt like I was in the prime of my life with so much potential and opportunity.
‘‘Looking in the mirror at a bald, pale, sickly reflection with a massive scar across my back and an implant where my breast had once been was the hardest psychological thing I have ever had to deal with.
‘‘I never made it on the honeymoon nor did my marriage survive the challenge but despite the odds I am happier and more grateful now than ever before.’’
Now 30, and in remission, Cooper recommends anyone eligible should take Herceptin.
‘‘It’s been shown to dramatically reduce the risk of cancer coming back with little side-effects so to me it’s a nobrainer.’’
Breast cancer is more common in older women and risk factors included alcohol consumption and ‘‘Western lifestyles’’.
But even when the ageing population had been factored in, the rise in breast cancer cases was ‘‘concerning’’ and higher than expected, according to the Breast Cancer Foundation.
Communications manager Adele Gautier said: ‘‘Unfortunately there’s not one factor we can point to – you can take two women with identical lifestyles, and one of them will get breast cancer while the other doesn’t.
‘‘It’s hard to say why the rate is still going up, except it’s believed that Western lifestyles play a significant part (immigrants from Asia and other areas with low breast cancer rates typically find their rates go up as generations adapt to Western lifestyles).’’
Herceptin had made a huge difference to survivability rates. ‘‘It’s money well spent.’’ In the Nelson-Marlborough area, the number of women receiving Herceptin treatment for breast cancer almost doubled in the last year, and has already blown a half million-dollar hole in the DHB’s budget.
Herceptin costs between $70,000 and $120,000 per patient annually, and can help to treat around a fifth of people suffering from breast and stomach cancer.
Pharmac director of operations Sarah Fitt said the agency was aware Herceptin use had increased and had negotiated a new price, effective as of January this year.