Federal government deserts bowel cancer patients

30-Mar-2011 30 March 2011 - The GUT Foundation is calling on the Federal Government to publicly declare whether it is planning to subsidise a new treatment for advanced bowel cancer patients.

The Federal Government has failed to declare whether it will subsidise new treatments recommended by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) within a "maximum time frame of six months".

Erbitux was recommended to be subsidised by the PBAC in July 2010 for patients living with advanced bowel cancer who carry a gene called KRAS “wild type”.  However, patients are still waiting for the treatment to be made available on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS).  

Bowel cancer is the second largest cause of cancer deaths in Australia with around 13,000 new cases diagnosed each year and almost 80 Australians dying from bowel cancer each week.

“Patients are owed an explanation as to why the Government has broken its commitment to provide them with timely access to treatments that not only have the potential to extend the time bowel cancer patients have to spend with their family and friends, but also improve their quality of life,” said Professor Terry Bolin, President, GUT Foundation.

“With the government also failing to commit to reinstating the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program we know that advanced bowel cancer cases are going to increase and this will warrant chemotherapy and the use of drugs such as Erbitux”

“I urge the Government to immediately make public its decision on the positive recommendation provided by its own panel of expert clinicians and health economists.”

The listing of Erbitux on the PBS would benefit the majority of advanced bowel cancer patients who carry the KRAS wild-type gene.  The KRAS test is performed on a sample of tumour tissue that is then sent to a laboratory for analysis.

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