Applications

1362 – Cetuximab and KRAS testing under MBS 73330

Find out about the service or technology in this application and the medical condition it addresses. You can also view the application documents, the deadlines for providing consultation input and the outcome of the application when the MSAC process is complete.

  • Status Complete
  • Type -
  • Pre-PASC consultation -
  • Pre-MSAC consultation -
  • Outcome -

Application details

Reason for application

Amendment to MBS item.

Service or technology in this application

Cetuximab is used to treat patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC). Cetuximab is a personalised medicine tailored to the genetic make-up of a patient. A patient’s cancer cells must therefore be tested to see if they contain the normal (“wild-type”) or a mutant form of a gene called Kirsten RAS (KRAS). Cetuximab is only used to treat metastatic CRC patients who have a normal KRAS gene.

Type: Therapeutic

Medical condition this application addresses

Colorectal cancer, commonly known as colon or bowel cancer, is a cancer formed by uncontrolled cell growth in the colon or rectum (parts of the large intestine), or in the appendix. Symptoms of colorectal cancer typically include rectal bleeding and anemia, sometimes associated with weight loss and changes in bowel habits. Metastatic cancer is cancer that has spread from the place where it first started to other place(s) in the body. The symptoms and signs of metastatic colorectal cancer depend on the location of the tumour in the bowel and on where it has spread elsewhere in the body.

Application documents

Meetings to consider this application

  • PASC meeting: -
  • ESC meeting: 10 - 11 October 2013
  • MSAC meeting: 28 November 2013