A new government medicine subsidy will allow thousands of Australian men battling an advanced form of prostate cancer to launch a three-pronged attack against their disease.
The first and only medicine specifically registered by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) to fight cancer after it has escaped the prostate is now on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS).
From 1 December, men with metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer (cancer that has spread beyond the prostate to organs such as the lymph nodes, bone, lung and liver) will receive subsidised access to NUBEQA® (darolutamide) for the first time. It will form part of a three-pronged treatment, used alongside chemotherapy and hormone therapy (androgen deprivation therapy or ADT).
Genesis Care oncologist Dr Laurence Krieger explained that NUBEQA works to starve cancer cells of the hormones they need to grow and divide, while androgen deprivation therapy blocks production of the cancer-stimulating hormones, and chemotherapy works to destroy cancer cells.
“Sadly, prostate cancer remains the second greatest cancer killer of Australian men. New treatment options are desperately needed,” he said.
Through the PBS, eligible men will pay just $7.30 (on concession) or $30 (general patients) each month for NUBEQA. Without the PBS subsidy, these tablets could cost more than $42,000 each year in addition to the cost of other anti-cancer medicines.
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in Australia and the second-leading cause of cancer deaths among Australian men. It is projected that this year alone, 25,487 Australian men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer and 3743 will lose their lives to the disease – a 25 per cent increase in the number of deaths from prostate cancer since 2007.
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