Pancare is supporting Bristol Myers Squibb in their application to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) for the funding of immunotherapy Nivolumab under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS).

Nivolumab is an immunotherapy for the treatment of oesophageal or gastro-oesophageal junction cancer. The application requests PBS funding of this immunotherapy, specifically for the treatment of oesophageal and gastro-oesophageal junction cancer patients who have already received surgery and platinum-based chemoradiotherapy (CRT). 

You can help the PBAC members make their decision by providing your own insights, as someone who is living with oesophageal and gastro-oesophageal junction cancer as either a patient or carer.  

The kind of insights the PBAC want to hear about are how this cancer and your current treatment has affected your life and how the possibility of another treatment may impact it. You may like to consider including:

• your record or recollection of side effects
• the impact on quality of life and ability to undertake normal activities
• the effect on family and work
• the financial impact of cancer and treatment. 

If you have had the opportunity to access immunotherapy for these cancers, you can include a comparison of this therapy to others, such as chemotherapy and surgery.  

Some therapies are difficult to access through clinical trial or compassionate access and they can incur large out-of-pocket expenses. Supporting PBAC applications is important and changes to the PBS can enable more equitable access to treatment. 

Your input can be submitted via an online survey or you can choose to upload a PDF or Word document with your statement. Submissions close Wednesday 25^th May 2022.

We know that making a PBAC application statement can be challenging and we encourage you to get in touch with the PanSupport team before Friday 20th May if you need advice or support with your submission. Please call Sonia or Katrina on 1300 881 698 or email [email protected] for help with your statement or to discuss Pancare incorporating your experiences into our submission.