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A great way to start lymphoma month

September 1 is the start of lymphoma month and from today another 2 new medicines have been added to the PBS for lymphoma patients.

The Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt recently announced that from the 1st of September, eligible Australian patients with relapsed / refractory primary mediastinal B cell lymphoma (PMBCL) and relapsed / refractory Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) and Small Lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL) will have new treatment options available for them on the PBS.

PMBCL is a very rare subtype of lymphoma and patients will now be able to access Keytruda if they have relapsed on previous treatments or they were refractory to treatment. KEYTRUDA (Pembrolizumab) is an immunotherapy medicine that enables the body’s own immune system to fight the lymphoma.

Calquence (Acalabrutinib) will also be available on the PBS for eligible Australian patients with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia and Small Lymphocytic Lymphoma. These lymphoma subtypes are considered to be a chronic cancer as it never goes away but Calquence provides eligible patients with an additional treatment option.

Lymphoma Australia would like to thank all the patients and other members of the community who helped us by making a submission to PBAC so these new treatments became approved for all eligible patients.

For further information and media comment, please phone Lymphoma Australia CEO Sharon Winton on 0431 483 204.

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General Enquiries

Please note: Lymphoma Australia staff are only able to reply to emails sent in English language.

For people living in Australia, we can offer a phone translation service. Have your nurse or English speaking relative call us to arrange this.

Useful Definitions

  • Refractory: This means the lymphoma does not get better with treatment. The treatment didn’t work as hoped.
  • Relapsed: This means the lymphoma came back after being gone for a while after treatment.
  • 2nd line treatment: This is the second treatment you get if the first one didn’t work (refractory) or if the lymphoma comes back (relapse).
  • 3rd line treatment: This is the third treatment you get if the second one didn’t work or the lymphoma comes back again.
  • Approved: Available in Australia and listed by the Therapeutics Goods Administration (TGA).
  • Funded: Costs are covered for Australian citizens. This means if you have a Medicare card, you shouldn’t have to pay for the treatment.[WO7]

You need healthy T-cells to make CAR T-cells. For this reason, CAR T-cell therapy cannot be used if you have a T-cell lymphoma – yet.

For more information on CAR T-cells and T-cell lymphoma click here. 

Special Note: Although your T-cells are removed from your blood for CAR T-cell therapy, most of our T-cells live outside of our blood – in our lymph nodes, thymus, spleen and other organs.