BOGANGOR resident Laurie Campbell and his family are hoping for a miracle - in the form of a cancer drug.

Suffering from advanced kidney cancer which has spread throughout his body, Mr Campbell is putting his faith in a drug called Opdivo, which was recently approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration in Australia.

To make the drug more affordable - currently the price tag is $5000 a fortnight - cancer-sufferers like Mr Campbell want to see it subsidised and available on the PBS (Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme) list.

The 51-year-old retired police officer says the process is "tied up in red tape".

More than three years ago, Mr Campbell went to the doctor with a sore back.

After an ultrasound, the shocking diagnosis was stage four kidney cancer.

"It had left the kidney and gone to the adrenal gland, the lung and chewed away the L2 vertebra," Mr Campbell said. "Once it leaves the kidney, it's very difficult to treat.

"They took out my left kidney, adrenal gland, half the pancreas, and they had to take the spleen out in early 2015."

"I came out of it alright. I bounced back. Eight weeks later, they decided to do work on my spine.

"I was readmitted and they did a laminectomy on my spine. It had been eaten out by the tumour."

While Mr Campbell's condition is now "stabilised", his cancer had spread and he's riddled with cancerous metastatic tumours.

About 2900 Australians are diagnosed with advanced kidney cancer each year. Opdivo's approval by the TGA now provides doctors with the option to use an I-O agent to treat their patients with advanced kidney cancer, following prior treatment.

A Bristol-Myers Squibb spokesperson said Opdivo was not reimbursed on the PBS for advanced kidney cancer, although it was reimbursed for advanced melanoma as monotherapy.

"The TGA approval of Opdivo for kidney cancer means that it is now available to purchase on a private prescription," the spokesperson said.

"Bristol-Myers Squibb has made every effort to accelerate the reimbursement process for Opdivo for advanced kidney cancer. "Opdivo has already been considered twice this year by the reimbursement expert body - Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee - most recently in November 2016. The outcome of the most recent review will be available on December 16."

Opdivo has become an important treatment option for three distinct types of cancers - advanced kidney cancer, lung cancer and melanoma - in many countries including the US, the UK, member states of the European Union (eg France, Italy, Spain), Canada, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

Opdivo is also approved for classical Hodgkin Lymphoma in the US and the EU. In the US, Opdivo is now approved for the treatment of advanced head and neck cancer.　

To date, the Opdivo clinical development program has enrolled more than 25,000 patients in trials around the world, including Australia.　

Opdivo's approval for advanced kidney cancer is based on a phase 3 clinical trial, CheckMate 025, in which patients with advanced kidney cancer who had received prior therapy were treated either with Opdivo or the current standard of care. The study demonstrated:

• Opdivo delivered durable long-term survival for kidney cancer patients.
• Patients treated with Opdivo showed an improvement in disease related symptoms over time and a significantly better quality of life throughout the duration of their treatment compared to patients treated with everolimus.
• Opdivo reduced the risk of death by 27% compared to patients treated with the current standard of care.
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