A life-extending drug will be funded for around 380 patients with advanced bowel cancer from today. Cetuximab will be funded for patients with left-sided RAS wild-type and BRAF wild-type metastatic colorectal cancer. Auckland mother Adrienne Smithson, one of many patients who pushed for the drug to be funded, died three weeks ago.
An Auckland mother who fought for access to a life-extending cancer drug has died just weeks before the medication is to be funded in New Zealand. Adrienne Smithson, from Hillcrest on Auckland’s North Shore, was diagnosed with stage-four colorectal cancer around 15 months ago. Smithson’s family crowdfunded $100,000 to pay for the unfunded drug cetuximab, and she was among a group of patients who campaigned for the medication to be made available to more bowel cancer patients.
As of today, the drug will be funded by Pharmac for patients with a specific type of advanced bowel cancer. Nearly 400 people are expected to qualify..