Erin Nielsen is a walking example of how effective biomarker testing can be. On Tuesday, she shared her breast cancer survival story with state legislators, hoping they will approve biomarker testing for people using Medicaid.
Six years ago, Nielsen was diagnosed with breast cancer. It was found during a routine mammogram.
“I was a full-time employee, I was a full-time mom, I have two daughters who were in high school so that kind of a diagnosis was very, very scary,” said Nielsen.
“The standard of care years prior was chemotherapy, radiation, surgery and then 10 years of hormone therapy. Because I was diagnosed when I was diagnosed, and because I was insured, biomarker testing was available to me and covered by my insurance. That was a game changer for me,” said Nielsen.
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Biomarker testing allows the doctors to look at the DNA of the tumor and pinpoint exactly what type of cancer you have.
“For the last two decades, there has been a lot of increase in research with cancer, but we have not seen an increase in survival rates that match the increase in research. One of the reasons is because we were treating cancer as every cancer is the same,” said Fahmy Mamuya, a cancer researcher at UConn Health. “This is where the biomarker comes in because they determine what type of cancer the person is carrying. So now you can actually put the right treatment in, rather than doing a hail mary of different types of treatments trying to see which one is going to work.”
Nielsen’s biomarker results showed she did not need chemotherapy, which she said would have been the standard of care years prior.
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“Being able to avoid that piece of my treatment plan was huge, especially having kids you know, not having to lose my hair, not having to have them see me get so sick. Like that was a huge benefit and it was also a huge cost saver for me,” said Nielsen.
Advocates with the American Cancer Society joined Nielsen at the Capitol on Tuesday to push legislators to approve biomarker testing for patients on Medicaid.
This is not a screening test or genetic test. This test is a result of a diagnosis and is used as part of a patient’s treatment plan.
The argument advocates are making is that by funding biomarker testing, it will save money in the long run because patients won’t waste their time and money on less effective treatments.
“I don't think that insurance should be the factor in the type of care that you receive. Everyone should have equal access to the best level of care,” Nielsen said.
