Hi Joe,
This woman's name is Barbara Clark. She lives in the south west of England. Her story is very well known to those of us in the UK.
The problem that we all are having over here is that the normal procedure in the UK is that drugs get licensed for a particular use and then the government authorizes them to be used on the NHS. In this case, the drug hasn't been licensed yet, so people with private insurance, which is rarer over here, find that their company won't necessarily pay, while those of us being treated under the national health service find that the health service won't pay. So, Barbara Clark is having to find 27,000 pounds, which is about 50,000 dollars. Lots of us have been writing our MPs (at least judging from the herceptin thread on the
http://www.breastcancercare.org.uk website in the treatments section of the chatroom) to get things moving much faster than normal and trying to stir up whatever media coverage we can get. There is no patient access program available.
I really hope that BCIRG 006 reports in December that AC->(herceptin+taxol) without the year of herceptin works, because that would solve alot of people's problems. It's really maddening because some people who would be really clear candidates for it (ER-,PR-, no taxane) are not getting it. Even some people who have the money are finding it hard to get doctors to agree to herceptin-based chemo.
I am lucky in I had the money saved up, but house prices have gone through the roof over here and most people have all their money tied up in their homes.
Best wishes,
Christine MH
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