Breast cancer warriors face millions in healthcare expenses

Although Kaydia McKoy, Miss Cosmos Queen of Jamaica, can be publicly seen gracefully wearing a crown on her head, privately she is struggling with a bill of around $8 million for treatment and care as a young breast cancer warrior.

Her story is not one that the 35-year-old mother of a five-year-old child, wife, and entrepreneur has brought to the forefront for pity, but to raise awareness of the staggering medical costs women in Jamaica diagnosed with breast cancer, and more specifically those without health insurance, have to face, often alone.

When no one comes to their rescue, they are left to the mercy of the public health system, which only has two mammography machines available, located at either end of the island at the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH) and the Cornwall Regional Hospital.

Kaydia was diagnosed five years ago. To date, she has undergone a hysterectomy, oophorectomy, a nipple-sparing mastectomy, reconstructive surgeries, a double port surgery, six months of chemotherapy, five weeks of radiotherapy, and is still undergoing bone treatment.

The surgeries have so far added up to around $3.5 million; while the chemotherapy costs $1.4 million; radiation $200,000; bone treatments are $100,000 per session (with a total of 10 sessions required); her monthly medications cost $48,000, and regular scans total $1.8 million.

After hearing of her enormous medical expenses, Sandra Samuels, president of Jamaica Reach to Recovery, who visits KPH every second Tuesday to hear the stories of those seeking treatment, expressed how pressuring it is for women in Jamaica.

“What do you do when you have none [no money to pay]? Let that just sit with you for a while,” Samuels said recently at the launch of the ICWI’s Pink Run press event, an initiative of which Kaydia is now an ambassador.

“What do you do when you have no village, no support, and no financial [capability]?” she questioned.

BLEAK PICTURE

Breast cancer, recognised globally as the most frequently diagnosed cancer, has overtaken lung cancer in its incidence rate. One in every four cancer cases diagnosed in women is attributed to breast cancer.

The 2020 statistics from Global Cancer Statistics (GLOBACON) paint a bleak picture of 2.3 million newly diagnosed cases and 685,000 fatalities worldwide. In Jamaica, GLOBACON 2022 statistics state that breast cancer accounts for 35 per cent of all cancers, with an incidence of 71 per 100,000 women.

During an interview on Friday, Dr Hugh Anthony Roberts, co-founder of the breast oncology clinic at KPH and consultant general surgeon, outlined the prohibitive cost women and men with breast cancer are facing.

“The biggest problem why we always try to promote screening, especially during breast cancer month, is because when you look at the cost of it. Yes, healthcare in the public sector is free, but not everything is necessarily available, especially when you get into some of the drugs,” Dr Roberts said.

“And if you speak to some of the companies that actually supply the drugs locally, even though they have a great programme, you’re still talking about $300,000 for some of the drugs per dose. In terms of that drug, you need to have 18 doses, so you can do the math, and it depends on what type [of breast cancer]. And you will see the cost rise in the advanced stage of cancer.”

AN EPIDEMIC IN JAMAICA

Dr Roberts conducted a cost analysis which he presented last year after speaking to his colleagues, estimating that treatment for stage one breast cancer costs between $3 million and $5 million, and up to $15 million for more advanced cases at stage three.

He noted that treatment for mental stress is another costly aspect when women seek counselling. Unlike first-world countries, Jamaica presents with three times more advanced and late-stage cases of breast cancer.

Samuels expressed a pressing concern.

She believes breast cancer is an epidemic in Jamaica and should be treated as such.

“It may not be as visual as COVID-19; however, the families affected are equally devastated. What makes it deadly and urgent is that it is slow and constant, taking our women one by one,” Samuels said.

“There is no pretest for breast cancer, so by the time you find the lump, it’s game on. That is why early detection is our only hope outside of gene testing and a proactive approach,” she added.

In 2023, Jamaica had its first two mammography machines commissioned for public hospitals, one at KPH and another at Cornwall Regional Hospital.

This was the first of free mammograms in the public system, but there is a shortage of radiologists to do the screening and testing.

ainsworth.morris@gleanerjm.com