The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Life-extending breast cancer drug approved
Kadcyla to be made routinely available for patients in Scotland following deal
Scotland has become the first part of the UK to make a drug routinely available on the NHS that can extend the lives of women suffering from an aggressive, incurable form of breast cancer.
Kadcyla was approved in an announcement by the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC), the body which selects drugs for use by the health service, which Scottish health secretary Shona Robison hailed as a “good decision”.
Patients in England can get the treatment through the Cancer Drugs Fund, but it has not been made routinely available by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice).
More than 4,600 women are diagnosed with breast cancer in Scotland each year, with the disease responsible for about 1,000 deaths annually.
Up to 118 women each year with the HER2-positive form of the disease could now benefit from Kadcyla.
Ms Robison said: “I know that there will be many patients who will be pleased and will benefit from Kadcyla now being available through the NHS.”
The decision was announced on the day Ms Robison declared Scotland is “one of the top nations in the world for accessing new medicines for cancer”.
SMC chairman Dr Alan MacDonald said the drug – also known as trastuzumab emtansine – had been approved after its manufacturers offered a discount in the cost.
He said: “I am pleased we were able to accept these new medicines for routine use in NHS Scotland.
“From the valuable testimonies given by patient groups and clinicians at our meeting, we know that trastuzumab emtansine will be welcomed by patients and their families for the treatment of breast cancer.
“We were able to accept trastuzumab emtansine on resubmission because the company offered an improved Patient Access Scheme (PAS), a confidential discount that improves the cost effectiveness of a medicine.”
Kadcyla can help extend the life of women suffering from HER2-positive secondary breast cancer, but the SMC had previously rejected making it available on the NHS.
Nicolas White, head of Breast Cancer Care in Scotland, said: “This is a landmark decision for those across Scotland living with this certain type of incurable secondary breast cancer.
“Kadcyla can mean an extra six months with loved ones to make countless more precious memories – that time is priceless.”
Mary Allison, Breast Cancer Now’s director for Scotland, said the decision would “transform treatment options” for patients.
Dr Iain Macpherson, a senior lecturer and honorary consultant in oncology at the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre, hailed the announcement as a “significant milestone in cancer drug access in Scotland”.
The decision by the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) to make available the life-prolonging drug Kadcyla on the National Health Service will not only be welcomed by those who live with incurable breast cancer.
Those who feel the point of the NHS is to offer the best care, no matter the cost, will also be relieved.
In a system in which patients are seen as individual people, with friends and family and lives still to lead, rather than figures on a balance sheet, drugs such as Kadcyla would be freely available as a matter of course.
A price cannot be placed on the ability to gain an otherwise unobtainable extra few months with loved ones – memories made in that time could prove a massive comfort to those left behind when the cruellest of diseases takes its final toll.
The knowledge that such help is at hand will also be a comfort to women who live with the threat of aggressive breast cancer, even if they do not have it.
Of course, we no longer live in a world where such decisions can be taken lightly – there will always be a financial cost and perhaps the availability of Kadcyla will restrict the ability to give other drugs the same status. But weighing such matters can come later. For now, it is worth celebrating a day when breast cancer patients in the worst of circumstances were given a crumb of comfort and treated like humans, not statistics.