New Advanced Radiation Therapy for TBRHSC Cancer Care

Terry Sullivan, President and CEO of Cancer Care Ontario, was in Thunder Bay today to highlight the goals of the 2008-2011 Ontario Cancer Plan and to congratulate Regional Cancer Care for being an early adopter of Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT), providing patients in the Northwest with access to the gold standard of radiation therapy.

The Ontario Cancer Plan is designed to boost cancer screening rates, improve access to diagnostic and treatment services, make cancer services better and safer, and put new cancer research into practice, faster.

Ensuring timely access to effective diagnosis and high-quality care is one of the key goals highlighted in Cancer Care Ontario’s 2008-2011 Ontario Cancer Plan. To help achieve this goal, Cancer Care Ontario is working toward implementing an advanced radiation therapy technique, IMRT, in each LHIN. It allows oncologists to deliver radiation to irregularly shaped treatment fields, sparing healthy tissue. Compared with traditional radiation techniques, IMRT reduces irradiation of surrounding tissues, such as the heart and lungs, by up to 50 per cent.

On March 31, 2008, Regional Cancer Care treated its first prostate cancer patient with IMRT. “The implementation of IMRT into Regional Cancer Care Northwest means patients living in Northwestern Ontario have access to the best standard of radiation treatment closer to home,” says Terrence Sullivan, President and CEO, Cancer Care Ontario. “Cancer Care Ontario is committed to working with all of the Regional Cancer Programs to provide the people of Ontario with the best quality cancer care.”

“Because of great commitment from our radiation therapy team and robust investments in equipment, including $2 million from Cancer Care Ontario, we are early out of the gates in implementing IMRT, offering our patients access to the most advanced radiation therapy treatment available,” says Michael Power, Vice President, Regional Cancer and Diagnostic Services, Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre.

"IMRT enables us to focus the radiation on the tumour more precisely, avoiding healthy tissues that surround the tumour. For patients, this means fewer side effects from treatment and therefore improved quality of life,” says Dr. Sunil Gulavita, Head and Coordinator, Radiation Therapy, Regional Cancer Care. “This will change the way we provide radiation therapy in the Northwest, beginning with prostate cancer patients.”

Ontario Cancer Plan 2008-2011 Goals

The 2008-2011 Ontario Cancer Plan is a three-year road map for the province’s cancer system. It sets out the actions that need to be taken to control cancer and improve patient care. This is the second Ontario Cancer Plan. The first plan was released in 2004.

Significant progress has been made since the first Ontario Cancer Plan. Wait times for radiation and cancer surgery have been steadily going down; regional cancer services and centres have greatly expanded; there are fewer smokers because of Smoke-Free Ontario Act; and the colorectal cancer screening and HPV vaccination programs will save lives.

“More people are surviving cancer and cancer services are better today than ever because of actions that have been taken in recent years,” says Dr. Sullivan. “We cannot afford to be complacent because 40 per cent more people will be living with cancer in the next decade. By working with our partners to take the steps set out in the Ontario Cancer Plan, fewer people will get cancer and more will survive a diagnosis and receive better services, every step of the way.”

The 2008-2011 Ontario Cancer Plan has six goals and highlights four key actions that will have the greatest impact on cancer in the next three years:

Boosting cancer screening rates through aggressive education about screening, providing tools to help primary care providers and patients participate in screening, including using IT to send invitations, reminders and prompts about screening. Cancer Care Ontario will work with our partners to reach under-screened groups including low income earners, new Canadians, people without a family physician and Aboriginals.
Improving the time to diagnosis by beginning to measure and set targets for the wait time between a referral from a family physician to when the patient sees a specialist for tests.
Raising the quality of regional cancer services through implementing improvements including; providing better access to chemotherapy in community hospitals, closer to home; making highly complex chemotherapy and lung surgery safer; and making intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) the gold standard radiation therapy.
Ensuring the high quality and safe introduction of tests that can predict people’s response to treatment and cancer risks, and enable individualized therapy – referred to as molecular medicine. Cancer Care Ontario continually improves cancer services so that fewer people get cancer and patients receive better care.

Regional Cancer Care Plan 2008

Regional Cancer Care Performance Indicator Chart

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