The Island’s one cancer patient receiving the chemotherapy drug eribulin is now assured a regular supply after a series of unnerving delays.

However, the reasons behind her uneven treatment raise further questions for Renée Carter, who is living with advanced breast cancer.

“I’m not blaming anybody — I just want clarity,” Ms Carter said.

“It messes with your psyche if you can’t get a full regimen — how do you know you’re getting a fair shake?”

Ms Carter, 55, has been undergoing treatment for four years. Her cancer is at stage four, meaning it has spread, and her best option now is simply to keep the disease at bay.

After trying a host of different chemotherapy regimes, she had hoped to start on the promising anticancer drug a year ago, but did not begin getting the courses of it until this summer.

“Eribulin is widely used in the United States — my oncologist didn’t know why they weren’t using it here,” she said.

After she began treatment, the supply was interrupted for a month in July, she said.

There was another interruption in September, and again this month.

“My regime hasn’t been consistent, which worries me tremendously,” Ms Carter said.

“All we’re trying to do is keep my cancer back. It would be miraculous to get rid of it.”

The drug is administered throughout a two-week period, with a week’s break followed by another week of treatment.

Eribulin is acquired from overseas by the Bermuda Hospitals Board (BHB). Ms Carter’s nurses could not explain the delays, but the inability to complete a three-month consistent regimen played “havoc” on her nerves, she said.

According to a spokeswoman for BHB, the delays were mainly as a result of the drug not being held in the hospital’s formulary, and its effectiveness for Ms Carter had to be assessed.

“This meant first the drug had to be sourced, a small amount ordered to assess its efficacy for the individual, then more ordered once the patient and Oncology agreed to continue,” the spokeswoman said.

“We are now ordering larger amounts to support this individual’s care. The patient’s individual clinical needs were very carefully assessed.

“We would stress that should the timeliness of a patient’s treatment be critical, they would be referred overseas.”

While reassured that a steady supply will be available as her treatment continues, Ms Carter said the experience had been “like swimming around a fishbowl chasing an answer”.

“This explains what is happening now but does not explain what happened in the past,” she said. “If they’re going to start me, they should know the quantity they need for at least three months before I get tested to see how well it has worked. I can’t be properly graded if I’m off regimen. I have not been able to get in the series required. In order to see if it’s working according to plan, I have to get it according to plan.”