Breast cancer: Pāpāmoa mother calls for wider funded access to Kisqali

Detailed summary

A mother with terminal breast cancer believes a drug funded publicly only for late-stage patients could have delayed the progression of the disease if she had been eligible…

Pāpāmoa mother Heather Johnson was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer in 2021 before it progressed to terminal Stage 4 in 2024. Photo / Kelly O'Hara

A mother with terminal breast cancer believes a drug funded publicly only for late-stage patients could have delayed the progression of the disease if she had been eligible earlier.

Heather Johnson says her “high-risk”, Stage 3 breast cancer diagnosis in 2021 meant her chance of surviving for 10 years was 42%.

But the 58-year-old, from Pāpāmoa, has seen great results from the drug Kisqali. She has been taking it since mid-2024, when it became publicly funded for late-stage patients.

That was about the same time as Johnson learned that her cancer had progressed to Stage 4, considered terminal.

Now she is calling for Kisqali to be publicly funded for people at earlier stages of the disease.

She “wholeheartedly” believed Kisqali would have delayed her Stage 4 progression if she could have accessed it after her initial diagnosis.

An international study by the drug’s supplier, Novartis, showed Kisqali reduced the risk of death by 19% and the risk of cancer returning by 26% when combined with standard hormone therapy.

New Zealand’s medicine-buying agency, Pharmac, said provisional recommendations on an application to fund the drug for early-stage breast cancer were due soon.

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