TRANSCRIPT:
Siobhan McGuiness had just turned 36 and was celebrating her youngest daughter's first birthday when she got the news no woman wants to hear.
"I was diagnosed with hormone positive early breast cancer. I was still breastfeeding at the time. And to be honest, it was the last thing on my mind. I had no risk factors, but that meant that by the time I presented to my GP my cancer had spread quite extensively locally to my underarm and above my collarbone. That put me in a high risk of recurrence group."
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in Australian women and an estimated 20,500 Australians will be diagnosed in 2024.
Siobhan says the news that she was now part of that cohort turned her world upside down.
"I was completely blindsided by this. I am a young, healthy person with no risk factors; no family history. And the breast cancer was the last thing on my mind when I went to see my GP with a lump in my breast. It is pretty devastating, especially with a young family. I think when you're young, when you have young kids - there is a kind of assumed certainty that you will be around for the future. That you can plan for that. And that was really stripped away from me in a heartbeat it felt like. This sense of not having total control of where my life would take me."
After having a full battery of treatment, including chemotherapy and surgery, Siobhan is now in remission - but the fear of recurrence is very real.
And that's where the breast cancer drug Verzenio comes in.
Clinical trials have shown that for around a third of all patients with early breast cancer, the disease returns, and that even after surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and ongoing hormone therapy - the risk remains.
Shom Goel is a medical oncologist at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.
He says this breast cancer drug addresses that issue directly.
"Verzenio is a tablet which we would now like to add to the treatment for certain women, and by doing so we believe it will put cancer cells in their bodies into a state of hibernation and therefore prevent those cancer cells from ever coming back and causing a future problem."
Dr Goel says access to these medicines earlier in the course of the disease is important, because it's there that it could make a big difference.
"We've made great progress in cancer, but despite that many women who have had treatment live with the constant fear of their cancer coming back. And it is treatments like this that stand to reduce the risk of that ever happening to them. And this really does bring treatment in the Australian setting in line with the most cutting edge, innovative treatment standards anywhere in the world."
Siobhan is among the patients now taking the medication.
And access to more patients is now being improved thanks to a decision to add Verzenio to the government-subsidised list of medicines, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme [[PBS]].
Health Minister Mark Butler says the oral tablet was previously only available on the PBS to advanced breast cancer patients.
"Verzenio has been on the PBS for some time for advanced cancer which has already spread to distant parts of the body. But this is the first listing for early forms of common breast cancer, accounting for about 70 percent of all breast cancer cases, the first form of listing for the early form of breast cancer - and I said will give new hope to about 2500 Australian women every single year."
The PBS listing means that a script will cost a maximum of $31.60, or $7.70 for concession card holders.
Without the subsidy, patients might have to pay $97,000 per course of treatment.
Siobhan has welcomed the decision.
"It is my biggest fear - is that the cancer will come back at some point. And I think doing everything I can in my power from looking after myself and taking care of my own health as well as taking every medication that is a potential option for me is really important to me. I think the fact that this medication is now going to be available for people in my position with high-risk early breast cancer is a phenomenal step forward for us. All I can do is stay as well as I can in the meantime and hope that medical research and science continues."
