A CANCER patient whose condition is growing worse by the day is desperately awaiting the arrival of a drug she hopes will help, but which hasn’t yet been approved by the Pharmaceutical Services.
The multiple myeloma sufferer has been told by Nicosia Hospital’s Haematology Department that the drug Revlimid may help her condition, which recently regressed.
Her desperate husband is enraged with the Pharmaceutical Services, which he said is deliberately trying to avoid approving the drug’s importation, as it is too expensive.
They have been waiting for almost a month for the Services’ Price Observatory Board to decide whether to bring the drug.
Her husband told Phileleftheros yesterday: “They are coming up with various means to avoid approving the drug because it is considered expensive.”
He said he had pressured the Services to offer a reply, and following a month of delays and postponements, he was told it would be discussed during last Friday’s meeting, which in the end was cancelled.
With his wife’s condition getting worse by the day, the man is at a loss as to what to do.
The Pharmaceutical Services have officially committed to discussing the matter next Friday.
According to the Services’ spokesman Antonis Konteminiotis, the Price Board had recently assessed a similar case and the drug was rejected.
He added that the State Prescription List has other drugs to deal with multiple myeloma.
But the patient has already received this medication and her condition got worse, which is why she has applied to have Revlimid, in the hope this will help her condition improve.
Revlimid contains lenalidomide, which is administered to the specific disease’s sufferers during induction chemotherapy. It can also be used later in the course of the disease, when treatment resistance occurs. It is less toxic than common drug thalidomide and according to medical experts, it is showing promise for treating myeloma.
Multiple myeloma is a cancer of plasma cells and is regarded as incurable, though remissions can be induced with steroids, chemotherapy, thalidomide and stem cell transplants.
The ailment is very painful for sufferers, with bone pain usually centring on the spine and ribs, while it worsens with activity. Patients are also very susceptible to conditions like pneumonia, renal failure and anaemia.
As many organs can be affected, the symptoms and signs vary greatly.
