Canadians with cancer have more options than ever, thanks to innovative new medicines
Chances are you know someone who’s been diagnosed with cancer. An estimated 200,000 Canadians will find out they have cancer this year alone, and one in two Canadians is expected to develop cancer in their lifetime. While the numbers are daunting, a series of novel treatments are providing new reasons for hope. Researchers are developing more advanced ways to fight cancer, providing new options—and better futures—for patients.
“What we’re seeing now is that companies are innovating to make new therapies available to treat cancer in ways that are having a tremendous impact,” says Winselow Tucker, Oncology General Manager at one of Canada’s research based pharmaceutical companies. “Strong innovation and research are making a major difference in how people are living with, and battling, cancer. We have the potential to make an impact in ways we weren’t able to in the past.”
When chemotherapy was first introduced in the 1950s, it was revolutionary and lifesaving. For many decades, chemotherapy, radiation and surgery were the three standard cancer treatments that doctors could offer patients. Then, about 15 years ago, targeted therapies changed the landscape of cancer medicine. Unlike standard chemotherapy that affects all cells in the body, targeted therapies work by seeking out specific genes or proteins.
For Toronto writer Lisa Machado, targeted therapies have offered new hope after a diagnosis of Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML). She was in her thirties, with two young children, when tests revealed abnormalities in her blood. At the time, it seemed like the rare blood cancer would steal away her future.
Machado recalls the day she was diagnosed. “It was truly the worst moment, ever, of my life. I just remember thinking that I was going to die. And that I wasn’t going to be here to see my children grow up. It was terrible.”
Her oncologist, a CML specialist, started Machado on a targeted drug to treat the cancer, and she went into remission. Machado is doing well, and her health is stable. She remains on therapy, and while she still feels anxious about her condition, the treatment has proved to be a lifeline.
“I’m feeling great,” she says. “I’m optimistic that there are a lot of medications out now and lots of promise for different treatments — and I’m feeling hopeful.”
Among the latest generation of cancer treatments, many still being tested in labs and clinical trials, are immuno-oncology therapies. Research is underway to determine how these therapies may work to activate the power of the body’s own immune system to recognize, and destroy, cancer cells and tumours.
Among those being studied are chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapies. Research suggests that these potential therapies may rewire a cancer patient’s own cells to fight cancer. The DNA of a specific immune cell (called a T-cell) is reprogrammed in a laboratory so it can attack cancer cells.
Once a large number of these new, “supercharged” cells are grown in a lab, they’re infused back into the patient. Researchers believe the CAR-T cell therapies hold incredible promise.
“It has the feel of a science fiction novel, but it’s actually happening today,” says Tucker.
New therapies are the result of years of research and investment. It can take 10 or more years to develop a new medicine, with the average cost pegged at $2.5-billion.
Industry and patient groups are working with Health Canada on drug policy — encouraging collaboration amongst all parties moving forward. As a result of these continued collaborations, Canada is often one of the first countries in the world to launch new medicines, offering patients quicker access to the latest treatments.
From the first chemotherapy treatments, to targeted medicines and beyond, the past two decades have seen remarkable progress in the treatment of cancers. It is vital, say industry leaders, for Canada to remain a welcoming environment for research and innovation. The work underway today in academic centres, labs and clinical trials is already setting the stage for the next important discovery that could help patients like Machado live to see their children grow up.