HALIFAX — Robin McGee has been living with stage four colorectal cancer for the past 13 years — a remarkable feat given the seriousness of her condition.
On Wednesday, the 62-year-old Nova Scotia resident travelled to Halifax, where she and 30 other cancer patients and survivors from nine provinces talked to researchers about their experiences with something called precision medicine. It’s an approach tailoring treatment for individual patients, taking into account the genetic make-up of each tumour and the personal characteristics of each patient.
For McGee, this data-driven approach to cancer research and treatment has been life-changing.
“My cancer was like a freight train, and this precision medicine slammed on the brakes,” she said in an interview after taking part in a series of discussions organized by the Terry Fox Marathon of Hope Cancer Centres Network. “It’s prevented very serious pain and disability.”
McGee said she had run out of treatment options paid for by the province. At her own expense, she arranged to have her tumour subjected to a genomic analysis, which would tell her about its mutations. The results pointed to an unusual therapy: a drug typically used to treat other forms of cancer.
After purchasing the drug in Bangladesh, she started treatment in July with her oncologist’s approval.
“My cancer blood markers have plummeted, showing I was responding (to the medication),” she said. “If we could make cancer treatment … responsive to individual biomarkers of mutations, as in my case, we’d save a lot more lives.”
When the cancer centres network was established in 2019, it brought together Canada’s leading cancer hospitals and research universities for the first time. The organization has been described as the “Team Canada of cancer research.”
With advanced research focused on finding harmful genetic mutations, the network has been hard at work sorting harmful mutations from benign ones by compiling genetic profile data from patients across Canada.
In the past, this kind of data sharing was hindered by provinces’ reluctance to transmit sensitive health information across borders. The network now provides a secure platform.
“We are building Canada’s most comprehensive resource when it comes to cancer,” said Robin Urquhart, co-leader of the Atlantic Cancer Consortium, which is part of the network.
“It includes clinical data and genomic data from patients across the country. That allows us to do a lot of things, like identifying different markers in blood that can detect cancer earlier …. (Precision medicine) is about being able to match every cancer patient to the best treatment possible.”
Urquhart said the meetings in Halifax marked the first time researchers within the network gathered with cancer patients, survivors and caregivers to talk about the future of precision medicine.
“This group has come together … to help guide our work,” said Urquhart, an associate professor in the department of community health and epidemiology at Dalhousie University in Halifax. “We want to make sure that the work we’re doing aligns with what patients want.”
Urquhart said she wanted to learn from patients and their relatives about their experiences with precision medicine and what might prevent some from taking part.
“They have the biggest stake in this data,” she said.
As for McGee, she has no doubt about its value.
“It is the wave of the future,” she said. “The miracles of today can be the standard of care tomorrow.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 16, 2023.
VANCOUVER – Mayors and other leaders from several British Columbia communities say the provincial and federal governments need to take “immediate action” to tackle mental health and public safety issues that have reached crisis levels.
Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim says it’s become “abundantly clear” that mental health and addiction issues and public safety have caused crises that are “gripping” Vancouver, and he and other politicians, First Nations leaders and law enforcement officials are pleading for federal and provincial help.
In a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier David Eby, mayors say there are “three critical fronts” that require action including “mandatory care” for people with severe mental health and addiction issues.
The letter says senior governments also need to bring in “meaningful bail reform” for repeat offenders, and the federal government must improve policing at Metro Vancouver ports to stop illicit drugs from coming in and stolen vehicles from being exported.
Sim says the “current system” has failed British Columbians, and the number of people dealing with severe mental health and addiction issues due to lack of proper care has “reached a critical point.”
Vancouver Police Chief Adam Palmer says repeat violent offenders are too often released on bail due to a “revolving door of justice,” and a new approach is needed to deal with mentally ill people who “pose a serious and immediate danger to themselves and others.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024
The Canadian government says it will donate up to 200,000 vaccine doses to fight the mpox outbreak in Congo and other African countries.
It says the donated doses of Imvamune will come from Canada’s existing supply and will not affect the country’s preparedness for mpox cases in this country.
Minister of Health Mark Holland says the donation “will help to protect those in the most affected regions of Africa and will help prevent further spread of the virus.”
Dr. Madhukar Pai, Canada research chair in epidemiology and global health, says although the donation is welcome, it is a very small portion of the estimated 10 million vaccine doses needed to control the outbreak.
Vaccine donations from wealthier countries have only recently started arriving in Africa, almost a month after the World Health Organization declared the mpox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.
A few days after the declaration in August, Global Affairs Canada announced a contribution of $1 million for mpox surveillance, diagnostic tools, research and community awareness in Africa.
On Thursday, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said mpox is still on the rise and that testing rates are “insufficient” across the continent.
Jason Kindrachuk, Canada research chair in emerging viruses at the University of Manitoba, said donating vaccines, in addition to supporting surveillance and diagnostic tests, is “massively important.”
But Kindrachuk, who has worked on the ground in Congo during the epidemic, also said that the international response to the mpox outbreak is “better late than never (but) better never late.”
“It would have been fantastic for us globally to not be in this position by having provided doses a much, much longer time prior than when we are,” he said, noting that the outbreak of clade I mpox in Congo started in early 2023.
Clade II mpox, endemic in regions of West Africa, came to the world’s attention even earlier — in 2022 — as that strain of virus spread to other countries, including Canada.
Two doses are recommended for mpox vaccination, so the donation may only benefit 100,000 people, Pai said.
Pai questioned whether Canada is contributing enough, as the federal government hasn’t said what percentage of its mpox vaccine stockpile it is donating.
“Small donations are simply not going to help end this crisis. We need to show greater solidarity and support,” he said in an email.
“That is the biggest lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic — our collective safety is tied with that of other nations.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government says it could be months before it reveals how many people are on the wait-list for a family doctor.
The head of the province’s health authority told reporters Wednesday that the government won’t release updated data until the 160,000 people who were on the wait-list in June are contacted to verify whether they still need primary care.
Karen Oldfield said Nova Scotia Health is working on validating the primary care wait-list data before posting new numbers, and that work may take a matter of months. The most recent public wait-list figures are from June 1, when 160,234 people, or about 16 per cent of the population, were on it.
“It’s going to take time to make 160,000 calls,” Oldfield said. “We are not talking weeks, we are talking months.”
The interim CEO and president of Nova Scotia Health said people on the list are being asked where they live, whether they still need a family doctor, and to give an update on their health.
A spokesperson with the province’s Health Department says the government and its health authority are “working hard” to turn the wait-list registry into a useful tool, adding that the data will be shared once it is validated.
Nova Scotia’s NDP are calling on Premier Tim Houston to immediately release statistics on how many people are looking for a family doctor. On Tuesday, the NDP introduced a bill that would require the health minister to make the number public every month.
“It is unacceptable for the list to be more than three months out of date,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Tuesday.
Chender said releasing this data regularly is vital so Nova Scotians can track the government’s progress on its main 2021 campaign promise: fixing health care.
The number of people in need of a family doctor has more than doubled between the 2021 summer election campaign and June 2024. Since September 2021 about 300 doctors have been added to the provincial health system, the Health Department said.
“We’ll know if Tim Houston is keeping his 2021 election promise to fix health care when Nova Scotians are attached to primary care,” Chender said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
