Thousands of Australians will pay considerably less for breast cancer treatment due to a new federal government decision.
Health Minister Mark Butler has announced that Truqap, a breast cancer drug, will be on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) from Wednesday, 1 October, with the start of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Being on PBS means the treatment will be on the government-subsidised list of medicines.
Truqap is used to treat breast cancer that is either locally advanced or metastatic and cannot be removed through surgery.
Without the subsidy, patients were facing costs of $100,000 for a course of treatment on Truqap.
From Wednesday, they will pay a maximum of $31.60 per script.
Health Minister Mark Butler said the listing is expected to improve survival rates for those with metastatic breast cancer.
"We think that only about 1 in 3 women with metastatic breast cancer will go on to survive 5 years or more," he said.
"This new listing, Truqap, will provide that additional hope to — we think — about 3,000 women and a few men as well, every single year. Making a very big dent in some of the challenges we have around the survivability and quality of life for women with metastatic breast cancer."
Andrea Smith, a founding member of Metastatic Breast Cancer (MBC) Action Australia, an organisation for people with metastatic breast cancer, has welcomed the recent decision.
"The estimated 24,000 people living with metastatic breast cancer in Australia often balance work and family responsibilities while dealing with the unrelenting psychological and physical demands of their diagnosis," she said.
According to the federal government, in 2024, more than 21,000 Australians were diagnosed with breast cancer, about 13 per cent of all new cancer cases that year, and 3,305 died from the disease.
Fran Boyle, a medical oncologist at the Mater Hospital in North Sydney, who treats patients with metastatic breast cancer, said adding Truqap to the PBS "means there is a new treatment option that can be used before chemotherapy, if this is desired.”
