War on Cancer

Dr. Val is publishing interviews with some of the major players in the war on cancer this week. Following on the footsteps of the CONCORD Study (which rated the US at the top of the international list) Dr. Val interviews doctors and policy makers about the direction of cancer care in the next 30 years.



"The gap between what we know and what we do is lethal."
-- Kay Redfield Jamison, Ph.D.

CONCORD Study - US and Canada have top rates of Cancer Survival

In the August 2008 issue of Lancet Oncology, Micheal Coleman et al, are reporting that the US and Canada have the best survival rates for Cancer. Canada has a cumulative 5-year survival of 82.5% compared to the US's 91.9%.

There is a lot of debate about the merits of various health care systems (public and private) but a 10% difference in survival is nothing to sneeze at. Canada showed less variation regionally and between races but the difference in overall survival is still stark. It would seem that cancer survival parallels the general impression of universal health care. Less variation at the expense of better outcomes. The data was from 1990-1994. It will be interesting to see if Canada can raise the bar to the level set by the US under universal coverage.

Here is a link to a Canadian news outlets' report on the abstract.

How has Canada's doctor shortage affected you?

Please go read the post at Sigmund, Carl and Alfred about how TallulahRose took a year to get a diagnosis of cancer. The story is poignant. I live and work in the town she's speaking about and am on staff at the hospital where she was probably treated.

I would love to say that this story is unique but I've had friends go through similar ordeals. Months to get a breast biopsy (which was returned positive) and the same to get vocal cord ca diagnosed. Our cancer care wait times are decreasing but we still have a way to go from first symptom to treatment. The family doctors are in a no-win situation too. When 99% of the people that are worried they have cancer come back with nothing wrong it's hard to determine which patients to accept because 'they're the one'.

What's Happening with Chemotherapy?

Cancer care has been designated as a priority program across Canada and cancer care wait times for radiation and surgery have dropped because of increased resources. But according to a recent press release despite more than doubling the budget for systemic treatment (chemo) since 2003 wait times haven't changed. I'm not exactly sure why this is happening as they don't seem to have posted the report on-line at Cancer Care Ontario but the press release states that the lack of change is due to increased use of the system (more people receive multiple doses of chemo) and a lack of medical oncologists. I'd like to read more about this because doubling the budget should have some effect on the wait time?