A B.C. woman with an aggressive form of cancer wants access to a drug that could extend her life and provide a bit more time with her young children -- but the drug is still experimental and the province says it simply can't afford to fund it.
Angie Gill, 41, has undergone a mastectomy and close to two years of chemotherapy for triple-negative breast cancer -- one of the most difficult forms of the disease to treat because it does not respond to hormonal therapy.
"The aggressiveness of the cancer, and it is Stage 4 you know, it's considered incurable. So for me, chemo is sort of like a Band-Aid, it's like every time I come off of it, the disease will come back shortly," Gill told CTV News.
In a bid to stretch her life longer and spend more time with her young children, Holland, 5, and Matthew, 2, Gill wants to try Keytruda, also known as pembrolizumab. It's an immunotherapy drug that works by blocking a protein found in certain tumours called PD-1, which inhibits the body's natural response to cancer cells.
Keytruda has been approved by Health Canada as a treatment for melanoma skin cancers. It's also been approved in the U.S. for advanced cases of a form of lung cancer. Studies are ongoing about its use in other kinds of cancer.
"There are studies in the U.S. that it's prolonged the lives of women in my exact situation," said Gill.
But the drug has not been clinically proven for use by breast cancer patients, so the B.C. Cancer Agency is refusing to cover the hefty $10,000 per month price tag.
"We just can't afford, using public money, to fund these sorts of experimental therapies," said Dr. Malcolm Moore, president of the agency.
Moore said he understands the frustration felt by Gill and others, but with a limited budget the agency has little choice but to reserve its coverage for drugs that have been proven to be effective and which have been approved by a panel of experts.
"Unfortunately, this is going to be a conversation that comes up again and again because we only have a certain amount of money to cover cancer care in the province," he said, noting that pharmaceutical companies are charging huge amounts for the drugs needed by cancer patients.
B.C. Health Minister Terry Lake expressed similar regrets, but agreed with Moore that the province needs to be responsible with taxpayers' money.
"We understand the desperation people feel but we have to make policy decisions based on evidence that's supplied to us by experts in those areas," Lake said.
Gill, however, says she doesn't have time to wait for clinical trials that could perhaps one day lead to provincial funding of the drug.
She's started crowdfunding to come up with the money to pay for the melanoma drug herself, in hopes it could give her precious extra months or years with her kids -- whom she says "give me the strength to fight and conquer this every day."
"The treatment is approximately $5,000 every two weeks and may be my best chance for survival. It will take approximately 5 months of treatment to see if it is successful," she stated on her page. "If I respond to treatment, it could be indefinite."
She added: "It would be impossible for the average person to afford such treatment, but perhaps with the help of many of you, I could be given the precious chance to reclaim my life and be here for my kids."
