A QUARTER of a million people have joined a campaign for a breakthrough breast cancer drug to be given to women denied it on the NHS.
More than 250,000 have signed Breast Cancer Now’s petition to overturn a medical watchdog ruling on Enhertu.
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It was refused for women with incurable cancer that has spread, despite evidence it can add six months or more to their lives and the fact it is offered on the Scottish NHS.
England’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence said the drug was not good enough value for money.
It is marketed at around £10,000 per patient per month and the NHS negotiated a lower price, but it was still deemed too much.
Breast Cancer Now estimates 1,000 women per year in England could benefit.
These women deserve the hope of more time to live
Jo Taylor
Baroness Delyth Morgan, chief of the charity, said there is a “crucial window” to campaign before a final decision is made.
She added: “This must happen urgently or women’s lives will tragically be cut short.”
The charity and the pharmaceutical companies, AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo, said Nice’s new decision-making process is flawed.
Enhertu, full name trastuzumab deruxtecan, targets a specific type of cancer called HER2-low.
WE WON’T GIVE UP, SAYS LOOSE WOMEN’S NADIA
LOOSE Women star Nadia Sawalha took the campaign for Enhertu to Parliament in March to help her friend, Hannah Gardner, who is living with incurable breast cancer at the age of just 37.
Nadia told Sun Health: “While Nice is still thinking, cancer cells are multiplying and women are dying.”
Hannah, a former clinical trial manager from Twickenham, London, has been told by her oncologist that the drug is now her best remaining option.
She was given her primary breast cancer diagnosis in 2013, aged 26, after discovering a large lump in her left breast.
After undergoing treatment, including chemotherapy and a double mastectomy, the cancer returned twice more — once in 2017 in her chest wall and again in 2020 in her underarm.
In June 2022, Hannah was given the news that she had stage 4 incurable breast cancer.
She said: “The thought of leaving my daughter keeps me awake at night.
“It also keeps me going with this campaign because she is not being robbed of her mummy for a second longer than she needs to.
“People at my stage can live two to four years and I’ve been three so far. This could give me those important extra months.”
It works by latching on to proteins on cancer cells and disrupting their DNA to destroy them from the inside out.
Some women are already eligible to get it on the NHS but campaigners want it offered to those who cannot be cured and are running out of options.
Breast Cancer Now’s petition had almost 260,000 signatures by lunchtime on Thursday.
Jo Taylor, from patient group METUPUK, said: “The quarter of a million signatures show there is a huge public outcry.
“These women deserve the hope of more time to live.”
The ‘Enhertu Emergency’ petition is online at this link.
What are the signs of breast cancer?
BREAST cancer is the most common type of cancer in the UK.
The majority of women who get it are over 50, but younger women and, in rare cases, men can also get breast cancer.
If it’s treated early enough, breast cancer can be prevented from spreading to other parts of the body.
Breast cancer can have a number of symptoms, but the first noticeable symptom is usually a lump or area of thickened breast tissue.
Most breast lumps aren’t cancerous, but it’s always best to have them checked by your doctor. You should also speak to your GP if you notice any of the following:
- a change in the size or shape of one or both breasts
- discharge from either of your nipples (which may be streaked with blood)
- a lump or swelling in either of your armpits
- dimpling on the skin of your breasts
- a rash on or around your nipple
- a change in the appearance of your nipple, such as becoming sunken into your breast
Source: NHS