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Twenty-five years ago, Donna Rullo joined a trial for a little-known, targeted breast cancer drug that saved her life and transformed the care of women who came after her.
Donna Rullo was one of the first people in Australia to access trastuzumab through a clinical trial in 2001. It was early 2001, and then-40-year-old Ms Rullo had just been diagnosed with HER2-positive breast cancer.
Up to one in five cases of breast cancer are HER2-positive, which means the cancer cells have higher than normal levels of human epidermal growth factor 2 protein, promoting growth of the cancer itself. When Ms Rullo was diagnosed, targeted treatments weren't an option in Australia. But 25 years ago, she took a leap of faith and joined a drug trial that changed the course of her life, and that of countless women after her.
for the treatment of patients with HER-2 positive early-stage breast cancer.
It's a move which Breast Cancer Network Australia founder and then-chief executive Lyn Swinburne says has been "life-changing" for thousands of Australian women since. Trastuzumab is now the most common HER2-targeted therapy offered to patients in Australia and New Zealand. It may be given alongside surgery, chemotherapy, radiation or other HER2-targeted treatments, and works by attaching itself to the cancer cell HER2 receptor.
$50,000 and $70,000 a year for treatmentIt was an accessibility gap that Ms Swinburne and then-Breast Cancer Network Australia board member, breast cancer survivor and former Olympian Raelene Boyle wanted to address.
"I was hearing from women who were selling their houses, selling their holiday houses, selling their farms to try and get this drug," Ms Swinburne says. "Probably knowing it wasn't going to save their lives necessarily, but it was going to extend their lives, and especially when you've got young children, that's really, really important.
" In June 2001, they invited prime minister John Howard to Ms Boyle's 50th birthday, sitting him between them as they lobbied for the drug to be subsidised. Raelene Boyle, pictured with former prime minister John Howard, described her 50th as a great party. In late 2001, the government announced a special program which allowed women with HER-2 positive metastatic breast cancer to access the drug for free.
Then, on October 1, 2006, it was added to the PBS for the treatment of patients with HER-2 positive early-stage breast cancer. Breast cancer is very common in Australia, with one in seven women diagnosed with the disease over their lifetime. Although more people in Australia are being diagnosed with breast cancer each year, Breast Cancer Network Australia chief executive Kirsten Pilatti says survivors are also living longer than ever before.
"Survival has certainly improved because we know more about the specifics of different breast cancers," she says. In 2017–2021, the chance of surviving at least five years post-diagnosis was 93 per cent, up from 75 per cent in 1987–1991. Rachel Dear, a medical oncologist at St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney, says improved survival rates have been driven by earlier detection and diagnosis, improved awareness and "more personalised and targeted" treatments.
Supplied: Rachel DearUnderstanding more about how different types of cancer behave and respond to treatment allows specialists to tailor treatments to each patient, Dr Dear says.
"There are three main types of breast cancer, and within each of those three types, there are more drug treatment options that have improved survival rates. Breast cancer's huge public profile means there is greater awareness of the disease, Dr Dear says, but has also led to greater investment in research and clinical trials, resulting in more treatment options for patients.
Ms Rullo considers herself lucky to have seen her son grow into a "remarkable" man, marry and have two kids of his own. She encourages people facing an uncertain health diagnosis to learn as much as they can and to advocate for themselves, if needed.
"Life could have completely gone a different way, who knows what could have happened if I didn't fight to be on that trial," she says.
Please follow us on Google to support usBreast Cancer HER2 Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2 Trastuzumab HER2 Therapy Richard Bell Herceptin Herzuma Ogiviri Ontruzant Trazimera Breast Cancer Network Australia Roelene Boyle Donna Rullo John Howard
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