B.C. lacks life-saving therapy

In the last month, Alberta became the third province, along with Ontario and Quebec, offering a cure for lymphoma, called CAR T-cell therapy.

Lymphoma is the fifth-most common cancer in Canada. Close to 27,000 people are diagnosed with cancer each year in B.C., and more than 4,000 die from it.

My husband was diagnosed with non-hodgkin lymphoma in 2013. I reached out to Lymphoma Canada at the time and was told that we were lucky to be living in B.C. — that the province was a leader in treating lymphoma, and in funding access to treatments.

The same could not be said today.

CAR T-cell therapy was approved for use in Canada in 2018. Despite an election promise to improve cancer care, there was absolutely no mention of cancer in this year's budget. B.C. continues to deny this province's lymphoma patients access to this revolutionary treatment here at home, and now trails behind several other provinces. The new CAR T-cell therapy program in Alberta is for their residents only. So B.C. will fund sending patients to Seattle instead. This is not a reasonable option.

CAR-T treatment takes several trips and many weeks to administer. Travel, food and accommodation costs are not covered by the province, and a caregiver must go with them. And then there's the fear of contracting COVID, loss of support, and family disruption. Few people have the means, health or support to make it happen. It needs to be accessible at home.

To Health Minister Adrian Dix, you committed to a cancer plan. There has never been a more important time to make the plan a reality for the people who really matter — the people of B.C. who are living with this deadly disease today. Sharlene Smith, past chair of the board of Lymphoma Canada