Urologists and PCFA welcome Medicare funding of game-changing prostate cancer scan

MedTech News: The Federal Government has announced Medicare funding of a new whole-body scan for patients with prostate cancer.

“This is truly practise changing for the management of men with prostate cancer in Australia,” said Professor Michael Hofman, Director of the Prostate Cancer Theranostics and Imaging Centre of Excellence (ProsTIC) at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.

“This funding provides important equitable access for patients with the most commonly diagnosed cancer in Australia.”

Until now, the out of pocket expenses for patients accessing these scans has been almost a thousand dollars.

Peter Mac performed the first PSMA PET scan in Melbourne, in 2014. The primary data in the funding application for this MBS addition came from Peter Mac’s ProPSMA study, published in The Lancet in 2020.

The award-winning randomised trial conducted compared PSMA PET/CT scans against standard CT and bone scan imaging. It ran across 10 sites, involving 300 patients. The ProPSMA study found that PSMA PET/CT scans provide better accuracy, more definitive results, lower radiation exposure, and enables more effective management of disease. It also included a health economics assessment, demonstrating that PSMA PET/CT is more cost effective than standard imaging.

Professor Declan Murphy, ProPSMA senior author and Director of Genito-urinary (GU) Oncology at Peter Mac, said “PSMA PET/CT is a game changer, detecting disease that previous medical scanning technology failed to detect. Better detection of cancer spread is critical to direct curative treatments whilst also avoiding additional treatments that may be harmful. This is a great day for men with prostate cancer in Australia.”

Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia said “The listing of PSMA PET/CT scanning will deliver at least 18,600 new occasions of service each year, helping thousands of men access better treatment to improve their prognosis. It’ll also save men and families thousands of dollars in scans.

“PCFA was proud to advocate strongly for this listing and to co-fund the ProPSMA research project that informed the decision. Our thanks to the experts, industry partners, and community advocates who supported our work and made this achievement possible.”

Telix Asia Pacific CEO, Dr David Cade, stated “This is an important step in enabling Australian men equitable access to this new imaging modality, which was recently approved by the TGA. This decision by the Federal Government sets an encouraging baseline, confirming the importance of this new form of imaging in the staging and management of prostate cancer and is reflective of the growing body of clinical evidence and adoption of PSMA-PET imaging in global clinical guidelines.”

There are currently ten active PSMA clinical trials at Peter Mac. Five new trials are opening through 2022.

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