A petition pushing for a genomic breast cancer test to be subsidised by the federal government has gained more than 15,000 signatures.

The gene expression profiling (GEP) test costs patients about $5,000 and is used to help doctors accurately predict what treatment breast cancer patients will need, and prevents patients from undergoing chemotherapy unnecessarily.

Perth oncologist Dr Tim Clay said a round table meeting was held with decision makers yesterday to discuss the test.

“The issue now becomes that we need to get around the barriers that have stopped this testing from being funded in the past,” he said.

“I am really hopeful that the government and the companies can meet somewhere in the middle so that we can have this testing, but without paying for it through the nose.”

Press PLAY to hear more about the test and the fight to have it subsidised

(Photo: iStock by Getty Images.)