BCAC Committee Member, Metavivor and medical writer Marion Barnett recently reviewed all the latest information on the treatment of advanced breast cancer in New Zealand and overseas. Marion has written an excellent article describing our current situation for each sub-type, including which treatments are recommended internationally and which are available here. Unfortunately, New Zealand is still a long way from providing the standards of care recommended in international guidelines and currently available in many other countries. Access to modern medicines to treat advanced breast cancer remains alarmingly restricted for kiwi women, and this is reflected in our poor survival statistics. You can read Marion’s article here.
This article is especially timely as it coincides with the Shawview report, which was commissioned to investigate Aotearoa’s access to new medicines. The report found that Aotearoa falls far short of other OECD countries, and that reform of the 30-year-old PHARMAC funding model is urgently needed. The Shawview report is available here.
8 August 2023
