21-05-2025
New breast cancer treatment that avoids chemotherapy saves woman almost €43k in lost income avoided
A new approach to breast cancer care in Ireland, which avoids chemotherapy, is saving each woman almost €43,000 and health services €152m annually across all patients who benefit.
Data gathered on 577 patients attending four Irish hospitals showed for the first time the wider benefits of the Oncotype DX test approach in addition to health boosts.
Some 412 of these women were able to avoid chemotherapy after this test identified they could safety have other treatment instead.
This means they did not suffer the debilitating side-effects of chemotherapy. In addition, this study shows they needed less time off work during treatment, which is estimated to have saved each woman €42,924 in average lost income avoided.
The women also skipped appointment-related costs estimated at €1,059. The Irish Cancer Society previously described these hidden costs as 'an often overlooked burden'.
The hospitals, all in Dublin, experienced a significant drop in demand, as these women needed 7,186 fewer hospital visits, 15,386 fewer hospital hours, and 187 fewer inpatient days.
Across the group of 577 patients, they needed 3,284 fewer chemotherapy cycles, which this study estimated is equivalent to 10,052 when extrapolated nationally.
On the broader economic impact, the study estimated €49.8m in societal chemotherapy cost savings. This comes to €152m when extrapolated nationally, a spokesman said.
They also estimated €4.7m in direct healthcare savings, coming to €14.5m when extrapolated nationally.
Lead author Professor Janice Walshe said 'The use of the 21 gene score in the management of breast cancer has resulted in over 70% of patients with early-stage hormone sensitive and HER-2 negative breast cancer avoiding chemotherapy.'
Prof Walshe, a consultant medical oncologist at St Vincent's Hospital and senior lecturer at UCD and Trinity College Dublin, said the findings have "wide reaching impacts for patients, their families and wider society.'
'While we have previously demonstrated cost savings from this gene expression test, our latest analysis — which incorporates the societal cost of chemotherapy — shows a national saving of €152m.'
The research, 'The Impact of Predictive Genomic Testing in Ireland: Financial and Resource Implications for Healthcare Institutions and Patients', was published at the European Society of Medical Oncology Breast Cancer 2025 conference in Munich this week.
Meanwhile, the Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association welcomed a 34% increase in pharmaceutical industry-sponsored clinical trials started in Ireland last year compared to 2023. The average time to recruit the first patient into a trial dropped by 31%.
However IPHA also warned on Tuesday: 'Despite these positive steps, Ireland still lags many of its European peers. In 2024, Ireland ranked 18th out of 27 EU countries in clinical trials per capita.'
