Mother with breast cancer forced to fundraise £200k for life-extending drug due to ‘unfair’ postcode lottery

Mother with breast cancer forced to fundraise £200k for life-extending drug due to ‘unfair’ postcode lottery Breast Cancer drug Enhertu is not available on the NHS in England and costs about £20,000 for three months privately - Bookmark - CommentsGo to comments A mother who has battled breast cancer for over a decade says she is facing an “unfair postcode lottery” after launching a private £200k fundraiser for a life extending drug. Sarah Barchetti, from Middleton near Manchester, was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015, after noticing a thickening of skin on her right breast. “I didn't think much of it, only that I should just go and get it checked and within a day I knew it was breast cancer,” Mrs Barachetti told the Independent. The 50-year-old had surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy and by January 2016 she thought her cancer had cleared. But four years later in May 2019 she was diagnosed with secondary breast cancer, meaning her cancer is now stage 4 and has spread to another part of her body. After multiple surgeries, endless treatments, two years of chemotherapy, radiotherapy, scans, biopsies and setbacks, Mrs Barchetti has exhausted the options available to her on the NHS. But there is one drug called Enhurtu (trastuzumab deruxtecan) that helps to treat HER2-low, which represents at least 55 per cent of breast cancers including the kind she has. Mrs Barachetti hopes this could be her “miracle drug”. Breast cancer is the most common cancer in the UK and around 55,000 women and 400 men are diagnosed with the disease every year, according to charity Breast Cancer Now. When it is caught in the early stages almost all women survive for five years after their diagnosis, but typically only a quarter of those diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer survive for five years, Cancer Research UK says. “My daughter was three at the time, it was absolutely horrific, it was the last thing that we expected. I’d had a fever a few months before that took me to bed, I didn’t feel quite right and had a swelling. The doctor scanned me again and confirmed the cancer had spread,” Mrs Barchetti said, recalling her stage 4 diagnosis seven years ago. Enhertu is the first licensed targeted treatment for patients with HER2-low breast cancer that cannot be removed surgically or that has spread to other parts of the body. Enhertu was approved for use in Scotland in December 2023 but was rejected for use on NHS England in March 2024 by the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) because it was too expensive. Mrs Barachetti said it’s “absolutely mind blowing” that Enhertu is not available on NHS. “If I lived in Scotland I could have it, I think it is just so unfair,” she added. “People are pretty much dying because they cannot come to an agreement on cost.” The cost of getting the treatment privately is astronomical at about about £10,000 to £15,000 per cycle forcing Mrs Barachetti to set up a GoFundMe page to help raise enough money to access the life-extending drug. Research by Breast Cancer Now has revealed that 60 per cent of UK adults deem the current postcode lottery around access to life-extending cancer drugs “unacceptable”, while 78 per cent are concerned that it is “unfair”. Claire Rowney, chief executive of Breast Cancer Now said: "It’s inexcusable that Enhertu remains out of reach for people with incurable metastatic breast cancer, robbing them of the chance of precious extra time to live. Many have tragically died waiting. "This is why we’re relentlessly campaigning to see Enhertu made available on the NHS in England for those who so desperately need it. “Changes to how much the NHS can spend on new medicines have created a new opportunity for Enhertu to finally be made available. There can be no more excuses. Daiichi Sankyo, AstraZeneca, NICE and NHS England must come together urgently and agree a deal - these women need Enhertu now." Given these new changes, discussions involving NICE, the pharmaceutical companies and NHS England have resumed to try to seek agreement on a commercial offer that would make Enhertu cost effective. AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo, the pharmaceutical companies that manufacture Enhertu, said: “Discussions are ongoing with NHS England and NICE to identify a solution to support access to Enhertu for HER2-low metastatic breast cancer patients in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. “We remain fully committed to working in partnership with the system to find a way forwards for patients.” A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "Our deepest sympathies go out to all those impacted by breast cancer. "The independent body NICE ensures patients can access the latest treatments at a price that is fair for the NHS and taxpayers. Enhertu has been the only breast cancer treatment that NICE has been unable to recommend for patients in the last eight years. "As part of the US-UK trade arrangement, NICE is now using a new higher cost-effectiveness threshold, allowing discussions with manufacturers of the drug to resume." 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