ResearchMatters

Together with some terrific panel members, we’re presenting at ASCO Tuesday morning

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ASCO, The American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting, is the world’s largest cancer conference, and it’s happening now, in Chicago and also with online sessions. This year’s theme is: Advancing Equitable Cancer Care Through Innovation #ASCO22. You can check out the program, which features over 200 sessions, here. The online platform includes 85 livestream sessions and more than 2,500 poster presentations.

Our session is Tuesday morning: Where Do You Go When You Put Your Best Foot Forward? Challenges After Upfront Use of Next-Generation TKIs in Driver-Mutated NSCLC. We have a 60 minute panel session during which we will discuss cases in an interactive manner with the audience. For example, we’ll have Question and Answer, Multiple Choice Questions for the Audience, and a “Likely Scale”. Should be fun! Here is the team:

ModeratorLyudmila Bazhenova
An International Academic Oncologist PerspectivePilar Garrido
North American/Community Oncology PerspectiveMakenzi Evangelist
A Patient PerspectiveJill Hamer-Wilson
A Radiation Oncologist PerspectiveMatthias Guckenberger

Last Fall when I said yes to this exciting opportunity, the ASCO organizers emphasized that it was important for all presenters to be physically present in Chicago for ASCO, but since my health declined I’m now unable to travel. I reached out to the ASCO team to ask if it would be possible in this case to present virtually. Very grateful that the ASCO team highly values the survivor advocate perspective and is willing to work for a process for virtual participation. It’s great to have good teammates!

Speaking of good teammates, a big shoutout to Chris Draft who has been making The White Ribbon Project Ribbons and delivering White Ribbons in multiple languages to many people at ASCO this year, including some of my co-panelists. Thank you, Chris and Team Draft!

#ASCO22

#ResearchMatters

#hope

#targetedtherapy

#nsclc

#lungcancer

#ASCO

#team

#survivorship

#grateful

#chicago

Ottawa Lung Cancer Support Group

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What is a cancer support group worth? Who can place a value on a group like this? We can encourage each other, support each other, lift each other up. We can help each other know we’re not alone. Together we can hold onto hope. Imagine what more we can do!

Together we are the Ottawa Lung Cancer Support Group. The Jelly Bean Gang. The Ottawa Circle. #LungCancerStrong

Here is how we looked on Zoom today. Due to COVID we’ve temporarily pivoted to the online world. Screenshot at 4:09pm EDT, shared with permission. Look at our faithful leader and all these beautiful lung cancer survivors, one on horseback, celebrating one year since diagnosis. Happy “Cancerversary”! Looking good, Ottawa!

Ottawa Lung Cancer Support Group, March 25, 2022, 4:09pm EDT

Wouldn’t it be good if everyone affected by cancer had a support group to be part of?

The Ottawa Lung Cancer Support Group welcomes people to the cancer centre through monthly (pre-COVID) outreach tables.

Queen’s Park, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Federal cancer advocacy, The Parliament Buildings, Ottawa, Canada
Federal cancer advocacy, Ottawa Canada
Federal cancer advocacy, Ottawa Canada
Federal cancer advocacy, Ottawa Canada
Cancer advocates, Ottawa City Hall
En route to advocate at Queen’s Park (site of the Ontario Legislative Building, home to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario) in Toronto
Cancer advocates in front of the Parliament Buildings, Ottawa Canada
The Parliament Buildings
Federal cancer advocacy, The Parliament Buildings, Ottawa Canada
Federal cancer advocacy, The Parliament Buildings, Ottawa Canada
The Ottawa Lung Cancer Support Group advocating to municipal, provincial and federal politicians and other influencers.

The Ottawa Lung Cancer Support Group on the front page of the newspaper Monday October 30, 2017

The Ottawa Lung Cancer Support Group travelled to present at the International Psychosocial Oncology World Congress 2019

The Ottawa Lung Cancer Support Group together with family & friends declared #LungCancerStrong, National Capital Race Weekend 2019

Jellybeans represent people diagnosed with lung cancer. More funding = more research = more survivors. Advocacy matters!

#ResearchMatters

The Ottawa Lung Cancer Support Group invited family and friends to make #TheWhiteRibbonProject ribbons August 9, 2021

Research Matters

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On Monday March 14, The Ottawa Hospital Cancer Centre lab drew blood to be analyzed by Canexia in Vancouver, British Columbia, to test to see if there is a treatable kind of cancer attacking me. We’re still waiting for results and holding onto hope.

Our family values hope. These terrific shirts are part of the lung cancer advocacy of Robyn Denis and family. Zebbee.com

Biomarker testing matters.

If the testing comes back with information about a treatable cancer, then taking daily pills could potentially turn my health around. Many lung cancer patients go from extremely poor health to feeling quite well in only a matter of days, once they start taking the right treatment (targeted therapy pills). This is what we are hoping for me. New research, as you probably know, is a game-changer for many people affected by cancer. We are hopeful that there will be some effective new research that will make a difference for me.

It’s possible that I may have to travel to get access to the pills through a clinical trial. We won’t know until we get information from the test. As many of you know, there can be challenges for people affected by lung cancer to get access to the life-extending treatments they need. Advocates fight for drug approvals and funding, for better access to clinical trials and for clinical trials to be offered in more geographical locations. Access matters.

Research matters – it matters for testing, for treatment options and for access to those treatments. Research matters, to me and to so many others, for people with lung cancer and so many other kinds of cancer. Advocacy matters! Research matters!

RIP Kim MacIntosh, Lung Cancer Survivor Advocate

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Before I met Kim MacIntosh I knew I would like her, because of the way my friends were speaking of her.

I couldn’t go to the World Conference on Lung Cancer in Toronto in 2018 because I had suffered progression. Andrea and Peggy promised to tell me all about it when they came back, and they did!

There were so many exciting stories: people they’d met, promising new research, fun times, but of all the details in all the stories, Kim was the person who stood out by far! I couldn’t wait to meet this lung cancer survivor advocate that I’d heard so much about.

Kim started driving in to our Ottawa lung cancer support groups – more than an hour each way, and she fit right in with the group. It was so good to get to know this lung cancer sister.

Kim cared about people. She deeply loved her family: husband Dean and daughters Ceilidh and Sadie, her parents, siblings and extended family; and friends, especially her besties. She spoke often of them and participated in all kinds of traditions with them that filled her calendar with meaning, joy and laughter. She knew half of Cornwall, and a good deal of other people as well.

Before Kim was diagnosed with lung cancer she worked as a nurse and had a fierce passion for advocacy. Kim brought her medical and scientific knowledge, her understanding of how the system works, and her prior passion for people and advocacy to her lung cancer advocacy. She could often be overheard encouraging people to apply for their disability parking pass or tax credit, reminding them that they were entitled to it and telling them step by step how to go about applying. Kim cared about people.

Andrea and I compiled this list of highlights of Kim’s lung cancer advocacy:

– early member Ottawa Lung Cancer Support Group (October 2018)

– IASLC World Conference on Lung Cancer, Toronto 2018

– staffed outreach tables at The Ottawa Hospital Cancer Centre

– shared her cancer story at the Ottawa Lung Cancer Patient Summit, November 2019

– went to LUNGevity conference in Washington DC, 2019

– member of the EGFR Resisters

– started the EGFR Canada fb group

– early leader in the Canadian Lung Cancer Advocacy — Breathe Hope fb group

– very strong presence on Twitter and on fb. Shared lots of research etc.

– co-designed the Lung Cancer Strong tee shirts and organized the ordering, printing and distribution

– completed IASLC’s STARs Program in 2019 and attended WCLC 2019 in Barcelona

– participated in June 2019 CCSN/LCC Breakfast and meetings with MPPs on Parliament Hill

 – made a video on her experience as a LC patient for CCSN’s Right to Survive campaign

– did a podcast for LCC with Dr. Paul Wheatley-Price

– member of Programs Committee, Lung Cancer Canada

– participated in The White Ribbon Project for lung cancer awareness and travelled in both Ontario & Quebec distributing white ribbons to lung cancer patients, advocates & medical staff

Kim was a good friend to many, a devoted wife and mom, and a fierce advocate for lung cancer and other important causes. She was deeply loved and she is missed. RIP, Kim, and thank you.

Kimberley Ann (Moran) MacIntosh September 30, 1967 – November 17, 2021

Kim’s obituary can be found at this link.

#hope #team #gratitude

A day in the life of an advocate

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Lung cancer advocacy offers a world of opportunity! A variety of sizes and shapes so that everyone who wants to stand up for people affected by lung cancer can find ways to apply best practices to make a difference!

Let me give you a small taste by telling you about my day yesterday, and some of the terrific teams I get to work with …

International Health Advocate Chris Draft called from Atlanta yesterday morning. Great call: inspiring and energising! Team Draft invests in lung cancer advocates: supporting, training, encouraging. Chris is a strategic big picture thinker, always challenging people and organizations to leverage opportunities to do even more good for people affected by lung cancer. #Grateful

Chris Draft (far right) with some of the terrific lung cancer advocates from Australia, the Netherlands, Mexico and Canada at World Conference on Lung Cancer, Barcelona, 2019.

A team from The Ottawa Hospital Cancer Centre is working on a resource package that will go out (on paper and electronically) to people who are newly diagnosed with lung cancer. This project matters because it helps fill a gap in patient care. We are a diverse team, representing all key groups: administrators, nurses, psychosocial oncology, doctors, and survivors. This diversity is important to ensure that the package will be as effective as possible, and that it will actually get to people. I spent some of yesterday working on the letter from survivors that is part of the package.

My awesome oncologist, Dr. Garth Nicholas, who is part of this team (photo taken before COVID-19)

What happens after lung cancer researchers apply for funding? A team of reviewers invest many hours carefully reading their research proposals, discerning strengths and weaknesses and evaluating, then gathering to discuss which they will recommend to receive funding. I spent time yesterday reading a research proposal as part of a review process.

The Patient Representatives Team of the Canadian Cancer Trials Group (CCTG) met (online) yesterday, so (among other things) I got to hear research updates from some amazing people, and present what’s happening with the lung site. Clinical trials are getting back on track after some things had slowed down due to COVID. Good news! Research matters!

The Canadian Cancer Research Alliance is supporting a project to gather recommendations for cancer research. I applied and was honoured and humbled to join the team. We were each asked to submit our five key Canadian cancer research priorities. What cancer research do you think is most important for the coming years? Yesterday the Ontario team met to discuss the priorities we had submitted, and worked together to discern the most important. Other regional teams will be meeting in days to come, and the rest of the process will unfold. What a tremendous opportunity to together influence Canadian cancer research priorities! Our voices matter.

There is a new CCTG lung cancer research idea that has been worked on and debated about for months. I’m excited about it, and have spoken up for it in CCTG Lung Executive meetings. Yesterday another CCTG patient representative and I agreed to be involved as collaborators on the grant application. Research brings hope!

My day was filled with conversations, emails, messages and more, but before it ended I also decided to participate in research. I filled out the first survey for the Canadian Cancer Trials Group study: CCTG SC27 – The Impact of the COVID-19 on Canadians Living with Cancer. If you would like to learn more about participating in this study, please click here!

There are many opportunities for lung cancer advocacy. We need more people to step up and be part of the team! I enjoy investing a lot of time and energy, but you don’t have to do the same things I do. There are a wide variety of opportunities to make a real difference! We need people with different skill sets to bring their unique abilities and commit whatever amount of time they choose. It’s up to us. Advocacy matters! #Team

photo credit: Chris Draft

Every day I give thanks for terrific teams and advocates, and that I’m well and able to do this work. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have questions or comments. #ResearchMatters #Hope #Gratitude

Lung cancer research brings real hope!

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More good news from lung cancer researchers!

Early data indicates that Repotrectinib shows promise for treating people with ROS1 or NTRK lung cancer! Turning Point Therapeutics is working with the US-FDA to modify this clinical trial to potentially accelerate approval times.* We are very excited about this future potential for our friends with ROS1 or NTRK lung cancer!

John has been living with NTRK lung cancer for 6.5 years.

John has been living with NTRK lung cancer for 6.5 years. Thanks to his oncologist, Bayer, and permission from Health Canada, he has been able to take Larotrectinib (which targets NTRK cancer) for the past 16 months. Data from the phase 1 clinical trial for Larotrectinib (LOXO-101) was presented in 2016, showing that it works well for people with NTRK. In 2019, Larotrectinib (“Vitrakvi”) was approved by Health Canada, and not just for lung cancer. Larotrectinib (“Vitrakvi”) works against NTRK cancer in multiple sites, including colon, melanoma and thyroid. Most importantly for John and those who care about him, Larotrectinib is working well for him. Research matters, and so does access to new treatments.

This may be the first time you’ve heard of NTRK lung cancer. It is one of the more newly talked about kinds of lung cancers. It is only in recent years that we’ve had treatment options for it, and many cancer centres in Canada don’t even test for it yet. I often wonder how many people there are who have NTRK like John, but are not receiving the appropriate treatment because they’ve never been tested for NTRK.

If people who are diagnosed with lung cancer don’t get biomarker testing, then no one knows what specific kind of lung cancer they have. Biomarker testing matters, because if we don’t know which specific kind of lung cancer, they can potentially miss out on years of good quality life. That is unacceptable. 100% biomarker testing matters.

* You can read more here.

#ResearchMatters #AccessMatters #BiomarkerTestingMatters #HopeMatters

Three More Reasons to Hold onto Hope

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In a challenging season, there are opportunities to be seized. When life is hard, there is still good going on. Here are three more reasons to hold onto hope…

3) Canadian Cancer Society/Canadian Institutes of Health Research Cancer Survivorship Team Grants

Last summer Jennifer Wilson, director of research operations for the Canadian Cancer Society, asked me to serve with some awesome review panelists to help decide which survivorship team research projects would receive funding. The $10 million competition, CCS/CIHR Cancer Survivorship Team Grants, had the goal of improving health outcomes for cancer survivors. We anticipated that at least four teams would be funded, but then just before the announcement could be made, COVID-19 struck.

Everything changed.

Prior to COVID-19, this $10M competition would have been the largest investment in cancer survivorship research ever made in Canada at one time.

The recipients were announced this month. During the delay brought on by COVID-19, additional partner funds were secured from the Alberta Cancer Foundation and McMaster University, which enabled SIX grants!!

Jennifer Wilson and team worked hard during a global pandemic to make the largest investment in cancer survivorship research even larger! Way to go team! Here is the announcement

  • Fellow panelist Dr. Vicky Forster and I at the Toronto CCS offices Autumn 2019

2) Great news! The US FDA approved SEVEN new lung cancer treatments in May 2020 (during COVID-19)!!

Tabrecta – Capmatinib (METex14)

Retevmo – Selpercatinib (RET)

Opdivo – Nivolumab + Yervoy – Ipilimumab

Tecentriq – Atezolizumab (first line)

Alunbrig – Brigatinib (ALK)

Opdivo – Nivolumab + Yervoy – Ipilimumab + chemo

Ramucirumab – Cyramza + erlotinib – Tarceva (EGFRex19 or ex21)

WOW! WOW!! WOW!!!

What tremendous achievement from multiple teams! Time to celebrate!! #ResearchMatters

1) What a feeling!

This is insignificant in comparison, but I am also thankful because I have feeling in my hands this evening.

Neuropathy (nerve damage / dysfunction) is a common side effect from some cancer treatments. My hands have been generally numb or in significant pain (usually burning, stabbing or electrical) for the past six and a half years of survivorship. I try to keep perspective, since these are side effects of drugs that are keeping me alive.

Tonight I was making biscuits, and as I rubbed my hands together to remove bits of dough, I realised that I could feel the palms of my hands. They felt almost normal, and they still do, a few hours later. Happiness and gratitude! So thankful to be alive six and a half years after diagnosis!! My kids were 6, 10 & 12 at diagnosis, and now they are 13, 17 & 19. That means so much! I’m so glad I get to be here with them. So very grateful!

The costs of survivorship are real. New and improved treatment options mean that (in general) people are living longer and better post diagnosis. Survival rates vary significantly, but about two thirds of people will live at least five years after a cancer diagnosis. This means that over one million Canadians are now living with cancer, and that number is expected to rise dramatically in the next twenty years. (Canadian Cancer Society statistics)

Research matters, to improve both quantity and quality of life.

Research brings hope.

Hold onto hope.

11 Pipers Piping

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12 Days of Giving to Lung Cancer Clinical Trials

The pipers are lung cancer fundraisers. Cheers to all who fundraise for lung cancer. Cheers and thank you!

Cheers to all fundraisers in the Super Bowl Challenge! Here are the current Top 5: Team Angie Downs & Fred Hutch Lung Cancer Research Center / Seattle Cancer Care Alliance; Lisa Moran & Lung Cancer Colorado Fund; “Team Hope,” (Christie Malnati, Sandy Shea and Kathy Weber) & International Lung Cancer (ILC) Foundation; Gina Hollenbeck & Baptist Memorial Health Care Foundation Memphis; Dy Wakefield & The American Lung Association Charleston SC. Great causes! I urge you to give! I especially want you to support Team Jill, but above all, give to lung cancer, please! Everyone who fundraises is a winner because we are all raising funds for a good cause.

Team Jill is currently in 6th place, but that can change in a hurry! We are coming up to the deadline and it’s not too late to give!

Last year we placed 4th and the top 3 fundraisers were winners. Many of you told me you were watching the donations, ready to give more if it would bump us into top 3, but you didn’t give because your amount wasn’t quite enough.

Please don’t wait for someone else. Please step up now! It takes a #team to tackle lung cancer. We need everyone!

If all of us gave what we could, it might bump us into top 3. Whether or not it does, it would be money given to a good cause. So please give what you can, whether it’s $10, $100, $1000, $10,000 or more. Lung cancer research extends lives!

A clinical trial partly funded by The Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation extended my life back in 2015. If not for that clinical trial, my kids probably would have lost their Mom at ages 14, 12 & 8. We are grateful beyond words to everyone who donated to make that clinical trial happen.

We fundraise so that other young kids won’t lose their Mom so young.

We fundraise because research extends lives of even the worst cancer killer by far (lung cancer). Every dollar you give makes a difference.

Every dollar helps. Please give what you can.

It’s not too late to give to lung cancer clinical trials. Please step up and give, #team!

Team Jill:  https://charity.gofundme.com/o/en/campaign/2020-lung-cancer-survivors-super-bowl-challenge/jillhamer-wilson

OR: Team Jill’s Canadian page (for Canadian Income Tax receipts): http://donate.ottawacancer.ca/goto/jill 

#12Days of giving to #lungcancer #clinicaltrials #Hope #Care #Team #Support #SilverLinings #Stories #Awareness #Early Detection #Treatment #Research #Survivorship #TeamDraft #ChrisDraft #Please #Give #ThankYou #lcsm

#Anyone can get lung cancer. Please give to life-extending clinical trials today. Thank you.

9 & 10 Ladies dancing & Lords a-leaping

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12 Days of Giving to Lung Cancer Clinical Trials

Cheers to the clinical trials teams, oncologists, surgeons, clerks, cleaners, administrators, managers, volunteers, leaders, and everyone who is glue to hold it together and/or oil to keep things running smoothly. #Team matters so much! The work you do matters and we see you leaping and dancing and rushing around to do it well.

Clinical trial protocols are complicated and they can change, updates occur, and so many important details to track. Machinery must be working properly, instruments calibrated, supplies stocked, and so much more behind-the-scenes that we patients don’t notice. Thank you!

The work you do matters and our lives depend on you. Thank you #team!

We may not say it much, but we are grateful for you and the good work you do. Thank you! Extra thank you’s to those of you who are working during important family times this holiday season. Cheers to you!

An extra big thank you to all of you who put in extra work as our Ottawa Hospital made the EPIC switch to electronic records. May 2020 be better!

Extra thank you’s to Dr. Paul Wheatley-Price, Medical Oncologist who goes the extra mile, gets glowing reviews from patients, is President of Lung Cancer Canada, and ran the marathon in May for people affected by lung cancer. Every movement needs strong leadership. Thank you for generously giving your self and your leadership skills to lung cancer.

It’s not too late to give to lung cancer clinical trials. Please give in honour of our #team!

Team Jill:  https://charity.gofundme.com/o/en/campaign/2020-lung-cancer-survivors-super-bowl-challenge/jillhamer-wilson

OR: Team Jill’s Canadian page (for Canadian Income Tax receipts): http://donate.ottawacancer.ca/goto/jill 

#12Days of giving to #lungcancer #clinicaltrials #Hope #Care #Team #Support #SilverLinings #Stories #Awareness #Early Detection #Treatment #Research #Survivorship #ThankYou #lcsm