Rethink Breast Cancer hoping Nova Scotia pays for $4,000 test
Proponents say the test gives a good idea whether certain people will have recurring bouts of breast cancer
A non-profit organization that advocates for breast cancer patients says Nova Scotia could save money if it were to fund a pricey cancer test.
The test is called Oncotype DX and it's relevant for a minority of breast cancer patients: those who are early stage estrogen-positive, and who are lymph node negative.
But for those patients, the test can predict whether they will have a recurring bout of cancer, after the tumour is removed.
If they have a low score on the test, chemotherapy is unnecessary, according to the test.
The test costs more than $4,000 per patient.
"The cost of treating a patient is far more expensive than the cost of funding this test," said Ashley Mac Isaac-Butler of Rethink Breast Cancer, a non-profit that advocates for young women with breast cancer.
Test is funded in 6 provinces
A study of the test released this week found in 50 per cent of cases where the test is used, doctors changed their minds about whether to order chemotherapy, said Mac Isaac-Butler. In most of those cases, the doctors decided against ordering chemotherapy after seeing the test results. But in a minority of cases, they decided to order chemotherapy, after originally thinking it wasn't necessary.
Mac Isaac-Butler said the test is funded in six provinces.
Aside from the financial issues, it can save a lot of unnecessary side-effects for patients.
"Chemotherapy is no walk in the park," said Mac Isaac-Butler. "The treatments can cause hair loss, bone pain, vomiting, extreme fatigue, and also long-term side-effects. For young women, that can be fertility loss, heart toxicity and other risks."
A Nova Scotian woman who wanted to be identified only as Heather writes about her experience with the test on the Rethink Breast Cancer website. After her surgery, she was resigned to having chemotherapy, she said, and didn't feel she could afford the test.
"In a meeting with my oncologist days before I was scheduled to begin chemo, with my family present, he strongly recommended that we find a way to have the test done, and my wonderful parents agreed to pay for it without hesitation," she wrote.
"The Oncotype test gives you a score out of 100, with a high score indicating that there is a high chance of breast cancer recurrence, and a strong likelihood that chemotherapy will be helpful in reducing this risk of recurrence. My score was three. Three! That's about as low a score as you can get on the Oncotype test, which means that undergoing chemotherapy would have been completely unnecessary."
Conservative MLA Christ d'Entremont asked Wednesday in the legislature whether the province plans to fund the test.
"What I can report today to the member opposite is that we know the value of this particular procedure," Health Minister Leo Glavine said. "However, there are also alternatives to that particular test. Right now, the medical community is still doing trials to see whether or not they will even ask that this test be funded."