Aidan Jaager
Saskatoon StarPhoenix
Cancer clinicians in Saskatoon are joining a countrywide effort to address critical delays and barriers in cancer care by advocating for urgent reforms in diagnosis, treatment and patient access.
The Cancer Clinician Advocacy Forum (CCAF) said specialists face delays in accessing technology and therapy across Canada, with 18.5 million hours per year on unnecessary administrative tasks — time that could be spent on 55.6 million patient visits instead.
CCAF was established in September 2023, consisting of pharmacists, nurses and physicians. The group aims to address public policy issues that impact the quality, accessibility and outcomes of cancer care.
“The goal of our forum is to highlight the challenge of ensuring that patients, no matter their geographic setting, are receiving equitable and efficient care in the province and to bring awareness to hopefully shape change,” said Dr. Mita Manna, CCAF co-chair and a medical oncologist at the Saskatchewan Cancer Agency in Saskatoon.
Choosing the right treatment requires appropriate diagnostic tests, like CT or PET scans and genetic testing. Manna said advances in molecular genetics now help identify the most effective therapies for patients.
The landscape has also changed significantly when it comes to screening detection and innovation.
“It’s not as straightforward as before, as we have a lot of new novel agents that work both intravenously as well as oral agents. They all have different mechanisms of actions and targets and different side effects,” Manna said.
She added the best opportunities for innovation in Canadian cancer care involve “not only identifying if there’s mutations present in stage two cancer, but also being able to detect what’s called circulating tumour cells or circulating tumour DNA.”
CCAF is also seeking action on three key priorities for cancer care in Canada.
The first includes expanding access to diagnostic testing, including molecular genetic testing that more accurately defines each cancer, leading to more targeted and effective treatment.
The second is ensuring faster and more equitable access to cancer therapies. The last is to improve efficiencies in patient care and address human resource constraints.
Urgent action is needed to overcome the challenges and barriers health professionals face in providing optimal cancer care for their patients, according to CCAF.
The group highlighted a gap in primary care. More than one in five Canadians don’t have a primary care provider, which delays cancer diagnoses.
There are also delays in new medicines, with Canada ranking last in the G7 and 19th out of 20 leading countries for the time it takes patients to access newly approved medicines.
CCAF identified that in Canada, there are big differences between how provinces prepare to provide timely molecular testing.
