The BC Cancer Centre for the North in Prince George will celebrate its 10th anniversary later this month.
On Saturday, Oct. 29, 2012, the centre opened its doors to begin serving the people of northern B.C. who otherwise would have had to travel to Kelowna, Vancouver or Victoria for cancer treatments. The centre brought advancements in technology and medical expertise that have saved lives and helped cancer sufferers regain their health.
Those breakthroughs are the result of years of fundraising and donations collected by groups like the BC Cancer Foundation and when people ask Pardeep Khrod, the foundation’s executive director for the Interior and Prince George where all that money is going, she doesn’t have to think hard about what to tell them.
“I joined BC Cancer Foundation four years ago and that is the question I had as well,” said Khrod. “Now, after working in this field and talking to our BC Cancer experts, we’ve made major breakthroughs. Breast cancer, when we started 10 years ago, we had less than a 20 per cent survival rate. With all of the research we’ve done we now have an over 92 per cent survival rate with breast cancer. As a woman in her 40s that gives me hope that we’ve increased our breast cancer survival rate.”
Men are also benefitting from all those millions of donated dollars that have spent on cancer research In B.C. and advances in targeted treatments with radiation that are less invasive than they used to be are proving more effective.
“With prostate cancer we’ve become so targeted in our treatment with brachytherapy - it’s a one-day or sometimes two-day outpatient treatment where they’re inserting a radioactive seed right into the cancer site,” said Khrod. “When we started this treatment in a trial phase, we had patients with a less than 50 per cent survival rate and if you fast forward to today we have an over 90 per cent survival rate.
“Hundreds of men are now considered cured of their prostate cancer.”
BC Cancer Foundation has launched the most ambitious and comprehensive fundraising campaign in its 78-year history. The foundation is trying to raise $500 million with its Beyond Belief campaign, which will involve the entire province for the first time ever. Beyond Belief will raise funds for research, advance cancer care and provide money to fight all types of cancer in all regions of the province.
All of the money raised in Prince George will stay in northern B.C. Jason Fisher, a partner with MNP LLP’s consulting services, is representing Prince George on the Beyond Belief Campaign Cabinet.
“In Prince George we’re quite fortunate and we have one of the newest cancer centres provincewide and we’re working with the community to create a precision radiotherapy program which would support advanced equipment and technology to provide radiotherapy to patients, which in a lot of cases of metastatic cancer is showing promising results,” said Khrod.
The cost of the precision radiation program is $1.7 million and since November the foundation has raised $1 million of that total.
The foundation is also working to fund a fellowship training program at the Prince George clinic to try to attract young oncologists to the city who will help with clinical research to allow patients to receive their treatments without delay. Khrod says the hope is the fellowship doctors will stay to work permanently in the city.
BC Cancer Foundation is also raising money for a patient support program which will provide travel funds and lodging for people who have to travel to Prince George for their cancer treatments and referrals to specialists. The program will also cover the cost of prescription drugs that are not covered by patients’ medical insurance plans.
The BC Cancer Centre for the North is located next to University Hospital of Northern B.C., at 1215 Lethbridge St. The facility is open for public tours by appointment. For more information go to the website or call 250-645-7300.
For more information of the BC Cancer Foundation and its Beyond Belief campaign, go to their website.or give them a call at 250-979-6652.
