Forty-two year-old Laval resident Jessie Putre isn’t shy about showing her mastectomy scar publicly because wants people to see what can happen if they delay getting a mammogram.
“I was actually told, ‘I wouldn’t worry about it, you’re young, you’re healthy,’ ” she says, claiming that’s what her family doctor told her last year when she asked for the exam, given her family’s history.
Then in spring of 2024 she found a lump in her right breast. On March 13, she working was diagnosed with HER-2 positive, an aggressive and recurring form of cancer. dShe says her surgeon urged her to get an operation as soon as hpossible.
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“From what they could see in the ultrasound it had startedhd to spread into my lymph nodes,” she explains. “I have invasive ductal carcinoma. It had spread like a spider’s web across my breast, nine centimetres horizontally and seven centimetres vertically.”
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Given wait times in hospitals, she opted to go to a private clinic ahnd had the mastectomy done within h week.
She went back to the public system to get chemotherapy and radiation in hospital.
Perjeta, according to Breastcancer.org is a targeted therapy “that works on the surface of the cancer cell by blocking the chemical signals that can stimulate this uncontrolled growth.”
According to Putre, however, St. Mary’s hospital refused to cover the cost since she had the surgery before taking the treatment. Now, she says, she’s expecting to pay tens of thousands of dollars for the drug.
“In the end it’s actually $68,000,” she points out.
Her good friend, Patricia Sasso, is horrified.
“The doctors told Jessie, ‘This is what you do,’ Jessie did it and now she’s penalized for it,” she says. “So it’s absolutely inhumane.”
Furthermore, Putre is convinced that had she been allowed to have a mammogram last year the cancer would’ve been caught earlier, preventing the whole ordeal.
Advocates have been urging health authorities to allow non-referral breast cancer screening at age 40, or even younger, since breast cancer rates have increased in all age groups, according to Karine-Iseult Ippersiel, CEO for the Quebec Breast Cancer Foundation.
“The key to breast cancer survival rate at 99 per cent is early detection,” she insists.
In a statement to Global News the Quebec health ministry says they’re exploring whether to lower the non-referral screening age from 50.
“Note that we have mandated the National Institute of Excellence in Health and Social Services (INESSS) to immediately evaluate the expansion of screening from the age of 40,” the statement reads in part. “Thus, in the event of a positive recommendation from INESSS experts, the program will be expanded to cover this clientele.”
The ministry also notes that earlier this year they expanded the non-referral screening from age 50 to 74, up from 50 to 69.
Without referring to Putre’s case, the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC), under whose umbrella St Mary’s falls, confirms that Perjeta is covered. They add in a statement to Global News, however, “there are specific indications for the prescription of certain treatments and they must be respected. Otherwise, other and better indicated/appropriate treatments are then prescribed.”
According to Putre, St. Mary’s hospital offered to cover the cost of another drug, but that her surgeon and medical oncologist prefer giving her Perjeta. A spokesperson at St. Mary’s says they are looking into the matter.
Since Putre’s insurance company won’t cover the cost, Sasso has launched a fundraising campaign.
The cancer patient expects to start chemotherapy in one week and hopes to help others avoid the same financial hurdles.
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