What price 6 months of life? £90 000 for some.
A drug called Kadcyla exists and it attacks cancer cells from HER2-receptor-positive cancers that have spread throughout the body. It can give the patient up to 6 months more time to live and doesn't have the same gruelling effects as chemotherapy. Sounds good so far?
Well, yes but the company who produces the drug have put the price of it at £90 000 per year and it has been rejected as a possible treatment that's going to be available on the NHS because it's too expensive.
It's the third breast cancer drug that Roche have produced that has been deemed too expensive by the NHS and although it has been available through the Cancer Drugs Fund up to now, this will stop in 2016, or at least be 're-negotiated' meaning the NHS hope that Roche will put the price down I guess.
The cost of the drug, according to Roche, reflects the years of research required to produce it.
The tumour I had was HER2 receptive which is why I'm taking Tamoxifen, which is meant to inhibit the hormones and thus development of further cancer. I am lucky that the cancer had not spread. This is scary to write and it feels like I'm tempting fate. I say 'it had not spread' with the proviso that this is a 'so far' because in those moments of doubt and fear, of which there are many for us post cancer patients, many nightmare scenarios are imagined, every sniff, lump, joint stiffness, stomach ache, sore throat, chest pain could potentially be a cancer. Sounds stupid and hypocondriac to say that, but for many people this is a daily reality, especially when an important moment like an exam, a meeting with the oncologist, the surgeon, a mammogram is coming up - the pressure mounts and stress levels go through the roof. We don't want to go back there and we want to hear the news so very much that the cancer has not spread or come back.
Anyway, now we know the price of 6 months of life - £90 000. I don't dare to imagine what I'd do if I was in that situation. Would I remortgage the house to pay for that extra time, putting the future of our home into jeopardy, would that be fair to my family? What's the pay off? Hoping it would work of course. I never thought about these conundrums personally but since cancer has touched my life, I do.
It also brings up that old stereotype of the greedy drug company against the defenceless patients who want more life which is a good journalistic story. I'm not sure if I buy into that way of thinking but it would be hard not to if I needed the drug and couldn't get it.
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