Living in a remote community like Labrador City, NL comes with its own challenges. We have one grocery store with very high prices, gas is $1.34/L, and we lack normal everyday amenities such as movie theatres and night clubs. Traveling out of Labrador means a very expensive plane ticket or driving 7-14 hours (depending on which direction you choose) on a partially paved highway that has often been called a cow path in some sections. The most critical challenge, however, is access to adequate healthcare. I experienced this firsthand when I was diagnosed with cancer.

Did you know that accessing treatments for stage IV metastatic breast cancer (mBC) is not universal across Canada? We live in a country that promotes universal health care to all but accessing cancer treatment varies by each province.

Timely access to medications is a key concern for any breast cancer patient, but drug access in Canada has long been a minefield to navigate. Inequitable access to medications across provinces, drug shortages and long wait times to access new treatments are just some of the issues patients and their families routinely encounter in their quest for treatment. National Pharmacare-a plan to reimburse prescription medications in a similar fashion as our healthcare system-has often been proposed as a solution to many of the drug access issues that Canadians currently experience. While Pharmacare has been debated nationally for a long time, it is only recently that the idea has gained real traction and momentum.

Are you looking for a clinical trial but not sure how to start or where to go? A new Clinical Trials Finder has been developed by Clinical Trials Ontario (CTO) to help you. You can search for a clinical trial in any province or territory in Canada, using only a few simple search terms.

The Canadian Breast Cancer Network is pleased to welcome a new member to our board of directors.  Cathy Hemeon of Mount Pearl, Newfoundland brings many years of experience in the health care field to her new role.  She, like all CBCN board members, is also a breast cancer survivor.  She was diagnosed in February 2016 with Stage I triple positive breast cancer following a screening MRI.

That’s what Dr. Majumder and her team of researchers at Brandon University in Manitoba are hoping to find out. Dr. Majumder, Assistant Professor in Cancer Genetics and Cell Biology, is screening blood plasma from breast cancer patients and patients who don’t have breast cancer to determine if there is a blood biomarker like micro RNA (miRNA) that could potentially tell us when breast cancer is present or growing in a person.

Cindy Blondeau of Moosomin, Saskatchewan is pleased that the federal government is legalizing marijuana.  For this metastatic breast cancer patient, pure CBD oil from this plant works better than any other painkillers that she has tried.

We’ve been talking a lot lately about side effects and ways to manage or cope with the many symptoms of cancer treatment. But what we haven’t talked about in all of these posts is how cannabis (or marijuana) can be used to help with your side effects. We thought it best to dedicate a blog post entirely on cannabis to help you better understand how it may help relieve your symptoms and how it’s regulated in Canada.