Free breast cancer therapy offered to 100 Hong Kong patients
The Greater China Cancer Foundation will offer free two-year CDK4/6 inhibitor therapy to 100 early-stage breast cancer patients treated in public hospitals. The initiative targets HR+/HER2- subtype patients to reduce recurrence risk, with drugs donated by Hengrui Pharma valued at over HK$10 million.
The Greater China Cancer Foundation will provide a free two-year course of CDK4/6 inhibitor adjuvant therapy to 100 patients with HR+/HER2- early-stage breast cancer treated in public hospitals, the organisation announced on Thursday.
Patients assessed as suitable by their doctors after surgery can register for the programme to lower their risk of cancer recurrence. The initiative comes as recent data from the Hong Kong Cancer Registry shows that over half of female breast cancer patients in Hong Kong have the HR+/HER2- subtype, with about 60 per cent diagnosed before age 65.
About 20 per cent of early-stage HR+/HER2- breast cancer patients face the risk of recurrence at any time. Research indicates that roughly one in every four to five high-risk patients will experience a recurrence within 10 years, placing prolonged psychological stress on individuals even after timely initial treatment.
To mitigate recurrence and mortality risks, doctors typically recommend post-surgical adjuvant therapies, including chemotherapy, radiation, and oral CDK4/6 inhibitors combined with endocrine therapy. Multiple large-scale clinical studies show that adding CDK4/6 inhibitors to endocrine therapy after surgery reduces the risk of recurrence or death, achieving a three-year invasive disease-free survival rate between 89 per cent and 91 per cent. Some early two-year analyses recorded rates as high as 94 per cent.
Fully donated by Hengrui Pharma, the medication is China's first self-developed CDK4/6 inhibitor to complete Phase III clinical trials and gain approval from the National Medical Products Administration for mainland market distribution. The total market value of the donated drugs exceeds HK$10 million.
To streamline access, attending doctors at public hospitals will assess cases and submit applications through a designated named-patient programme. Once verified by the foundation, patients can collect the medication directly from public hospital pharmacies, bypassing complex administrative procedures so they can focus on recovery.