Funding boost for breast and prostate cancer

Australian men with prostate cancer will have greater access to MRI scans to help avoid unnecessary biopsies.

More than 17,000 men are expected to be diagnosed with the disease this year, making it one of the country's biggest cancer killers.

It was announced in the Federal budget last night that a $400 Medicare rebate will be available for MRI to diagnose and monitor the disease.

The new technology, called multiparametric MRI, has the potential to reduce the number of men undergoing unnecessary biopsies by 27 percent.

"It will change prostate cancer care by reducing the number of biopsies that can leave men with infections and other unpleasant side-effects," said Malcolm Freame, Chief Operating Officer, Prostate Cancer Foundation.

"Multiparametric MRI is more likely to detect clinically significant tumours than the standard transrectal ultrasound-guided biopsy," he said.

Urologists also welcome the announcement saying the most contemporary published studies in Australia and overseas confirm the benefit of MRI technology in improving the testing pathway to detect prostate cancer.

"The use of MRI following an elevated PSA can help clinicians decide whether a biopsy is necessary or not as well as improving the diagnostic process to pick up significant cancers and avoiding diagnosing indolent cancers," Adjunct Professor Peter Heathcote, President of the Urological Society of Australia and NZ, told 9NEWS.

"The cost of biopsy is substantially higher than a MRI scan, so if we can safely reduce the number of biopsies, not only do we eliminate unnecessary discomfort and complications there would be a significant financial saving," he said.

Prostate cancer causes as many deaths as breast cancer in Australia, claiming more than 3000 lives each year.

The Federal Government has also boosted funding for breast cancer patients by making a new drug more affordable.

Ribociclib, marketed as Kisqali, is a lifeline for women who are diagnosed with hormone positive HER2 negative cancer that has spread.

"It means they can avoid having to pay five thousand dollars a month for a treatment that's really helping them to live well," said Danielle Spence, Director of Policy, Breast Cancer Network Australia.

The drug will be listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme from July 1.

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