Sarah Roth: We need to take the same commitment we’ve put into fighting the pandemic to bring down cancer

Two years ago, the novel coronavirus emerged and suddenly it seemed like, globally, we dropped whatever we were doing and focused our attention on this new, and sometimes fatal, virus.

But for 80,000 British Columbians, COVID-19 is not their primary health concern. Cancer is.

And the same global mobilization and investment in science that has us closer, if not all the way, to ending the pandemic is also required to beat cancer — a disease that will affect one in two of us in our lifetimes.

COVID-19 has taken 2,786 lives in B.C. to date. Cancer stole more than 11,000 people from their families in 2021 alone. And last year, 30,000 people in B.C. had to endure hearing those three life-altering words from their doctors: “You have cancer.”

It strikes close to home for all of us, and no one is safe. I lost both sets of my grandparents and my aunt to cancer. With 50 per cent of the population expected to receive a diagnosis, we’ll all eventually lose loved ones to this disease. But I have hope it will be different for our children.

COVID-19 resulted in an incredible coming together of brilliant minds to quickly develop immunizations. In early 2020, the world’s track record on vaccine development suggested we were years away from a vaccine. And yet, just over 10 months later, the first healthcare worker in our province rolled up their sleeve. Research, hard work and financial investment made this possible. With similar efforts, the same can be done for cancer treatments and cures.

An arduous journey in the best of times, facing cancer was made even more challenging during the pandemic. Patients who formerly leaned on family and friends for support during gruelling chemotherapy appointments suddenly found themselves attending them alone. Many spoke of nurses, doctors and other B.C. Cancer staff who stepped in to fill those voids. All six B.C. Cancer centres quickly mobilized in March 2020, putting intricately planned protocols in place and increasing telehealth opportunities to protect immune-compromised patients. As a result, none of the centres reported a COVID-19 outbreak. B.C. Cancer also boasts a near-perfect vaccination rate — 99 per cent of staff are fully vaccinated.

Despite these wins, we know the pandemic has been incredibly challenging for our healthcare workers and their patients. To ensure continuity in care wasn’t impacted by financial or accessibility barriers, B.C. Cancer Foundation donors rallied to support a $1-million COVID-19 response fund to provide transportation, lodging, gas, and grocery vouchers to patients.

Those donors, and many others, also made it possible for our scientists to continue their work despite the temporary closure of the research centre. And while cancer and COVID-19 appear to have little in common, innovation and collaboration in science can have amazing results.

For example, a breath-based test pilot to detect lung cancer also showed potential as a rapid COVID-19 test. The ongoing study, led by B.C. Cancer’s Dr. Renelle Meyers and Dr. Stephen Lam, has resulted in a breakthrough technology that can now be applied to test early stages of lung cancer, and is aiming to develop a simple, inexpensive, accurate and portable COVID-19 test that can produce results in minutes.

Meanwhile, promising outcomes are emerging from a clinical trial of a simple blood test to detect advanced prostate cancer. If the study, led by Dr. Kim Chi and Dr. Alex Wyatt, bears fruit, it will reduce the need for invasive biopsies.

The last two years taught us how much science matters. We witnessed vaccines progress from discovery, testing and approval to manufacturing and distribution in a matter of months. The world has a renewed appreciation and respect for scientists and their life-saving work. That includes the government of British Columbia, which is partnering with B.C. Cancer to invest in new cancer centres in some of the province’s most rapidly growing communities.

We appear to be heading to a time when COVID-19 becomes a more manageable virus. For cancer, that “manageability” still feels very far off. However, every new drug that outsmarts this ever-evolving disease and every advancement in technology brings us closer. One day, we will view cancer the way we now view formerly life-threatening illnesses that have been eradicated by modern medicine.

But first, we need to take that same commitment we’ve put into fighting the pandemic and use it to bring down the world’s deadliest disease, cancer.

Sarah Roth is the president and CEO of the B.C. Cancer Foundation.

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