FinHer a ‘poor choice’ for Pharmac

Herceptin Heroes
Media Release
Auckland – 19 January 2007

FinHer a ‘poor choice’ for Pharmac.

Pharmac may be considering funding Herceptin for 9 weeks instead of 12 months based on results of a small Finnish study published early last year. The study, known as FinHer, trialled only 116 women for 9 weeks while the internationally recognised 12 month trial HERA involved 12,000 women.

‘New Zealand was the first country in the world to give women the vote,’ said Herceptin Heroes Chair Anne Hayden, ‘first to be nuclear free and Medsafe the first pharmaceutical consultancy to approve the administration of Herceptin for women with early stage HER2 positive breast cancer. Now we are ready to make another life-changing decision for our women and I hope it is not the wrong one.’

Ms Hayden has concerns about the FinHer trial and its adoption as the basis for Herceptin funding. ‘The FinHer study has so many glaring inadequacies, it would be a poor choice,’ said Ms Hayden. ‘Only 116 women trialled Herceptin in that study, and it was poorly monitored for cardiac side-effects. Although it reported that cardiac incidents occurred for a few women not taking Herceptin, those in the trial were only tested before chemotherapy, after their last FEC treatment, then at 12 and 36 months. Thus if any cardiac incidents did occur, they might not have been detected unless patients became unwell.’

Issues of cardio-toxicity have been cited by Pharmac as reason not to endorse the 12 month course which 23 of 28 OECD countries are now funding. Ms Hayden believes the issue of cardio-toxicity has been raised as a smokescreen to conceal the real issue of Pharmac’s reluctance to fund Herceptin’s high cost. ‘There have been no concerns expressed publicly about the cardiac contraindications of anthrocyclines which are funded and readily given to breast cancer patients,’ said Ms Hayden. ‘One course of this drug is half the amount a woman can have in her lifetime. Yet only some women having this drug are given adequate cardiac testing prior to and during its administration.

‘If Pharmac adopts the FinHer model or something of a similar short duration, it could only be described as a cynical attempt to manipulate the hopes and fears of women dealing with this seriously life-threatening disease.’

About Herceptin Heroes

Herceptin Heroes is an informal group of women who are HER2 positive breast cancer sufferers. The group is a member of the Breast Cancer Aotearoa Coalition (BCAC).

Herceptin (Trastuzumab) is a monoclonal antibody which targets and attaches itself to the HER2 protein on breast cancer cells, thereby stopping its messages to tumour cells to aggressively grow and spread. It also stimulates the body’s natural immune system to fight back.

ENDS

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