disparities

Happy World Cancer Research Day!

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Biomarker Testing + Research + Access = Life

I’m alive today because of biomarker testing, research, and access to new treatment options. Yes, and great care from my oncologist, Dr. Garth Nicholas, and healthcare team at The Ottawa Hospital Cancer Centre.

I was diagnosed with stage 4 ALK+ lung cancer in 2013 when my children were only 6, 10 and 12.

I started on chemo, then four different targeted therapies … Most treatment lines lasted only a year or two; each gift of time meant more life, more time with family and friends, more opportunities to serve as a lung cancer advocate

Every month, every year has meant memories and milestones, opportunities to celebrate life and be with my kids as they have grown. 

My youngest was just about to start grade one when I had a cold with a cough that wouldn’t go away which was eventually diagnosed as lung cancer. Now she is in grade 9, just started high school. My middle child can play almost every musical instrument and will graduate high school this year. My oldest, who was in grade 7 when I was diagnosed, is now in third year university, studying Electrical Engineering and Physics.

I can’t tell you how thankful I am to still be with them. Very thankful for biomarker testing, research and access to new treatments… and my terrific healthcare team.

Targeted therapy is such a game changer. New targeted treatments are so much better than chemotherapy – it’s a night and day difference – and these new treatments keep getting better and better!

Targeted therapy means more energy, more good days, more ability, more time for the people we love, more time for what matters, more life.

My children are my top priority. I am also passionate about lung cancer advocacy. I started on Lorlatinib in 2018, and it has given me great quality of life, so I have been able to invest about 30-40 hours a week in lung cancer advocacy.

This is an excerpt from a presentation I’ve been making (as part of a team) to a number of groups this month. Next come many slides with pictures and quotes from people affected by lung cancer, people who I love, who are like family to me. They are living life more fully, because they have access to new life-extending treatments called targeted therapies. These are people who matter and are worth fighting for. I’m honoured to “bring them with me” as part of these presentations, and appreciate very much their willingness to share pictures and stories with the goal of increasing access to new drugs.

The presentation is about the importance of fighting for people to get access for new targeted therapies, because this is a matter of life and death and people matter. Research alone isn’t enough. We need to enlarge the boundaries of our concept of research to also include biomarker testing and access.

What are new drugs worth if we don’t do biomarker testing to find out which people will likely benefit from the new treatment? With 100% biomarker testing we will know specifically which type of cancer more people have, and be able to match more people with effective treatments. With 100% biomarker testing, we will also be able to more quickly accrue more patients to our clinical trials so the trials will show results more quickly, and effective new treatments can get approved and funded sooner.

What is the value of researchers working hard to develop effective new treatments, if people cannot get access to them? Access matters. It is often a matter of life and death. We must work to close the gaps and make sure people can benefit from research. Could you imagine how hard it would be to be a dying cancer patient who knows there is an effective treatment that would very likely extend their life, but they can’t get access to it? How hard would it be to be the patient’s loved one? The patient’s oncologist?

Biomarker Testing + Research + Access = Life

On this World Cancer Research Day, let’s celebrate research and researchers! Let’s celebrate fundraisers, administrators and patient partners! Let’s celebrate the entire research team! Let’s broaden our concept of research and fight together for more people to benefit from effective new research.

#BiomarkerTestingMatters #ResearchMatters #AccessMatters

#Hope #ResearchWorks #WorldCancerResearchDay #PeopleMatter

(Note: photo above is Dr. Vicky Forster, Toronto; photo’s are all pre-COVID.)

  • Dr. Garth Nicholas
  • Ottawa Clinical Trials Team
  • Dr. Ross Camidge in Ottawa Canada
  • Dr. Jim Allison, Immunologist and Nobel laureate.
  • Dr. Christine Lovly, M.D., Ph.D., Vanderbilt
  • Sung Poblete, PhD, RN, President and CEO, Stand Up to Cancer

This kind of care

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I’m heading to Atlanta for the special Scientist <–> Survivor program at the preeminent cancer research conference (AACR Annual Meeting) in two weeks, and I am excited! I want to make the most of this opportunity, so I’m preparing! One of the articles I read, recently published by the National Cancer Institute (US), was about lung cancer treatment disparities in The United States. Here’s what I learned:

Black patients who are diagnosed with early stage lung cancer are less likely to be treated than white patients (in the US). A study tried to address some of the reasons, and ended up significantly increasing treatment rates for black patients and also white ones.

Outside of the study, only 69% of black people and 78% of white people completed treatment (that could potentially cure them of lung cancer). In contrast, during the study, a remarkable 96.5% of the black people and 95% of the white people completed treatment. What a significant improvement!

Do you know how they did it?

  • They paid attention to whether or not people were getting treated.
  • They communicated.
  • They hired nurse navigators to engage with people and break down barriers.

This kind of care – just a little more care – made an enormous difference! We need this kind of care for every lung cancer patient in every cancer centre!

I wonder how the care compares in Canada…

You can read the article here!