UK breast cancer patient appeals Herceptin decision

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A British woman with early-stage breast cancer went to the Court of Appeal in London on Monday in a bid to force her health authority to pay for the potentially life-saving drug Herceptin.

Ann Marie Rogers, 54, is appealing against a High Court ruling last month that Swindon Primary Care Trust in Wiltshire need not pay for the costly medication, made by Switzerland’s Roche.

At an earlier hearing, the judge was told that Rogers felt as though she had been given “a death sentence” as a result of having been initially refused the drug, which costs about 20,000 pounds ($35,000) a year.

Rogers’ lawyer David Pannick told the court on Monday that refusing the drug was “unlawful and unreasonable” and breached his client’s rights under the Human Rights Convention.

Herceptin is one of a new generation of targeted therapies that attack only cancer cells and are tolerated much better than traditional chemotherapy.

The drug is only licensed for use in women with advanced breast cancer, although doctors can use their discretion to prescribe it in other cases.

Research has shown Herceptin can help patients in the early stages of breast cancer but many health authorities say they will only fund treatment in exceptional cases.

“The case for Miss Rogers is that refusal of the respondent trust to provide her with the drug Herceptin was unlawful, it was unreasonable, it was the result of a failure to give proper consideration to relevant factors and it breaches her right to life,” Pannick said.

Rogers met all the necessary criteria for a patient to receive the drug and her doctor had said she should be given it as it represented her best chance of survival.

“The stark facts are she has a 25 percent chance of remaining free of the disease after 10 years and a 57 percent prospect of breast cancer killing her in 10 years,” he added.

Rogers, a former restaurant manager, has in fact been receiving the drug since last year when another High Court judge held she had an “arguable case.”

The health trust refused to provide the drug because it was not yet licensed and there was an editorial in the medical journal The Lancet recommending caution, Pannick said.

There have also been references to trials that indicated the possibility of the drug causing cardiac risks, but he told the court these were not sufficient reasons to deny her Herceptin.

The hearing is set to last a day or a day and a half and the court will then deliver its verdict in writing at a later date.

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