November 5th, 2004

A medication that was recently approved for the treatment of mesothelioma has been released in Australia. However, it has been deemed ‘meaningless’ by officials in Australia because it is too expensive and many patients will be unable to afford the treatment.

Pemetrexed has only recently been released in Australia, and is the first drug that has effectively managed to treat mesothelioma to some degree, although there is still no cure for this cancer. Mesothelioma is a cancer that results from asbestos exposure, and the cases of this type of cancer have risen over recent years. It can take decades for the presence of this disease to be detected, and so far experts have struggled to find effective treatments for the cancer.

Although pemetrexed was recently approved for mesothelioma treatment following a series of clinical trials, the Asbestos Diseases Society of Australia has stated that patients will be unable to benefit from the treatment due to its cost. It will cost around two thousand dollars per cycle, which means that it could cost each patient thousands of dollars each month.