Achi news desk-
42-year-old Laval resident Jessie Putre isn’t shy about showing her mastectomy scar in public because she wants people to see what can happen if they delay getting a mammogram.
“I was actually told, ‘I wouldn’t worry about it, you’re young, you’re healthy,'” she said, claiming that’s what her family doctor told her last year when she asked about the exam, given her condition her family. history.
Then in the spring of 2024 she found a lump in her right breast. On March 13, she was diagnosed with HER-2 positive, an aggressive and recurrent form of cancer. She says her surgeon encouraged her to have surgery as soon as possible.
“From what they could see in the ultrasound it had started to spread to my lymph nodes,” he explains. “I have invasive ductal carcinoma. It had spread like a spider’s web across my breast, nine centimeters horizontally and seven centimeters vertically.”
Given hospital waiting times, she chose to go to a private clinic and had the mastectomy done within a week.
He went back into the public system for chemotherapy and radiation at the hospital.
Putre says her medical team recommends Perjeta as an antibody treatment.
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Perjeta, according to Breastcancer.org is a targeted therapy “that works on the surface of the cancer cell by blocking the chemical signals that can stimulate this uncontrolled growth.”
According to Putre, however, the hospital of St. Mary paid the cost since she had the operation before taking the treatment. Now, she said, she expects to pay tens of thousands of dollars for the drug.
“In the end it’s actually $68,000,” he notes.
Her good friend, Patricia Sasso, is terrified.
“The doctors told Jessie, ‘This is what you do,’ Jessie did it and now she’s been punished for it,” he said. “So it’s completely inhumane.”
Furthermore, Putre is convinced that if she had been allowed to have a mammogram last year the cancer would have been caught earlier, preventing all the suffering.
Advocates have been urging health authorities to allow non-referral breast cancer screening at age 40, or even younger, as breast cancer rates have increased in all age groups, according to Karine-Iseult Ippersiel, Chief Officer Executive of the Quebec Breast Cancer Foundation.
“The key to a 99 percent breast cancer survival rate is early detection,” she insisted.
In a statement to Global News, Quebec’s health ministry says they are examining whether the screening age without referral should be lowered from 50.
“Please note that we have mandated the National Institute for Excellence in Health and Social Services (INESSS) to evaluate the immediate expansion of screening from age 40,” the statement reads in part. “Therefore, if there is a positive recommendation from INESSS experts, the program will be expanded to include these customers.”
The ministry also notes that they expanded the non-referral screening earlier this year from age 50 to 74, up from 50 to 69.
Without referring to the Putre case, the McGill University Health Center (MUHC), under whose umbrella St Mary’s falls, confirms that Perjeta is covered. They add in a statement to Global News, however, “there are specific indications for prescribing certain treatments and they must be respected. Otherwise, other better indicated/appropriate treatments will be prescribed.”
According to Putre, the hospital of St. Mary paid the cost of another drug, but her surgeon and medical oncologist preferred to give her Perjeta. A spokesman in St. Mary’s that they are investigating the matter.
As Putre’s insurance company will not cover the cost, Sasso has launched a fundraising campaign.
The cancer patient expects to start chemotherapy in a week and hopes to help others avoid the same financial hurdles.
& copy 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
