‘We must do better’,More funding sought for lung cancer treatments

Philip Hope

Lung cancer patients are not getting a fair go, says the New Zealand Lung Foundation.

It has a petition running that seeks to have the Government make lung cancer a national health priority, and to approve more Pharmac funding for lung cancer medications.

The foundation has also taken its case directly to Pharmac, in a 48-page submission that includes moving accounts of the struggles and stress of lung cancer patients and their families.

Foundation chief executive Philip Hope said he was cautiously optimistic that there may be some more funding for lung cancer drugs.

The most recent treatment funded for lung cancer by Pharmac was Pemetrexed in November 2017, 13 years after Australia.

He said 15,000 New Zealand patients with advanced lung cancer had missed out in that time and died prematurely.

“We must do better.”

Lung cancer was New Zealand’s biggest cancer killer, yet the amount spent on the top three lung cancer drugs funded by Pharmac equated to just 2.3 percent of the top five cancer drugs ($122 million).

The impact on patients and families to meet the cost of unfunded drugs was causing financial crisis and increased risk of suicide.

Five New Zealanders died of lung cancer every day.

According to the foundation’s submission, lung cancer drugs Erlotinib, Getfitinib and Pemetrexeo received $2.8m in funding while breast, melanoma, prostate and blood cancer drugs received funding of $220m.

The petition asks for lung cancer medication such as Keytruda, Osimertinib, Crizotinib and Alectinib to be funded and made available to those with advanced lung cancer.

Mr Hope said there was terrible inequity in drug funding in New Zealand.

“Our most vulnerable patients don’t have access to treatments that keep them well,” he said.

“This is the purpose of the petition.

“There could be more work in prevention, in early detection, in screening — certainly in improving health literacy.

‘‘But also we know the most effective way to reduce inequity in lung cancer is to fund treatments that work.”

The Government must give priority to the fight against the disease, he said.

The Lung Foundation says 80 percent of New Zealand lung cancer patients do not have an effective first-line treatment, yet lung cancer accounts for nearly 20 percent of all cancer deaths — ahead of bowel/colorectal cancer, breast cancer and prostate cancer.

To sign the lung cancer petition, go to: https://lungfoundation.org.nz/sign-our-petition/