WASHINGTON Financial assistance is available to patients struggling with costs of the newand extremely expensivetargeted therapies for renal cell carcinoma as well as other advanced cancers, Mr. James Goetz said at the annual Community Oncology Conference.
As far as the patient is concerned, the approved agents sunitinib (Sutent), sorafenib (Nexavar), and temsirolimus (Torisel) are all in the same cost ballpark, with each resulting in a bill of about $135,000 for a 6-month regimen at St. Luke's Hospital and Health Network in Bethlehem, Pa., where Mr. Goetz is the network administrator of the Oncology Service Line.
"We're seeing more and more patients on Medicare without secondary insurance, those who are underinsured, and who have no insurance. … The onus of these expensive drugs is on the patient," he said.
But there are places to turn for help, according to Mr. Goetz. First, all the manufacturers offer patient assistance programs, accessible on their Web sites (www.sutent.comwww.nexavar.comwww.torisel.com
Nonprofit organizations can help fill in the gaps. A highly recommended resource is the Patient Advocate Foundation (PAF; www.patientadvocate.org
The foundation employs professional case managers and attorneys to assist patients with a wide range of access-to-care issues, including pre-authorization, insurance appeals, and assistance with expedited applications for Social Security disability, Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIPs, and other programs. It also provides assistance with job retention, debt crisis, housing, transportation to medical treatment, and child care. In addition, it offers a "Co-Pay Relief" program for those who are already insured, and an assistance program geared specifically to patients with colorectal cancer. "The PAF is a great resource that we give to many of our patients," Mr. Goetz said.
Other potentially helpful nonprofit patient assistance organizations listed by Mr. Goetz include the following:
▸ Patient Access Network Foundation (www.patientaccessnetwork.org
▸ Healthwell Foundation (www.healthwellfoundation.org
▸ Cancer Care (www.cancercare.org
Mr. Goetz declared no financial interest in any of the relevant manufacturers. SKIN & ALLERGY NEWS and Community Oncology are both published by Elsevier.