Sask. now offering 'revolutionary' treatment for patients with specific cancers
Adult cancer patients in Saskatchewan with certain blood cancers and lymphomas can now receive what is referred to as a "revolutionary" and "life-saving" treatment.
Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cell or CAR T therapy is now available in Saskatoon.
The provincial government provided $2.1 million initially to set up the immunotherapy program and will spend $6.7 million a year to operate it and cover patient costs.
On Tuesday, the Saskatchewan Cancer Agency made the announcement alongside the Saskatchewan Health Authority and Health Minister Paul Merriman in Saskatoon.
Gary Carriere spoke at the event. He was diagnosed with lymphoma in March 2020 and received CAR T therapy last fall in Montreal.
"It's four months from then. I'm already doing things that I couldn't do for three years. I can't wait until summer to get out there."
Carriere underwent chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant before his cancer returned in 2021. He was able to receive CAR T.
"I'm 64 years old, one good thing about the CAR T is I went out grey and I came home with dark hair," Carriere said, removing his cap and receiving laughs from the audience. "My wife is jealous."
Carriere is now cancer-free.
He said he was pleased Saskatchewan is offering the treatment, which will help patients avoid having to leave the province and receive care alone.
"I speak from the heart because it is not easy to travel out of province, especially when you are fighting for your life."
He called being alone in Montreal in a hospital, "lonely and isolating."
CAR T a 'last chance,' says cancer doctor
Carriere's doctor in Saskatoon is Saskatchewan Cancer Agency hematologist Dr. Mark Bosch.
Bosch called the treatment coming to Saskatchewan "a momentous day" for the province.
"This new therapy option is giving hope to some patients who are not responding to existing treatment or have already exhausted all other conventional treatment options available to them," Bosch said.
He called the CAR T therapy "revolutionary" and said it "is considered the most promising treatment for blood cancers in decades."
Bosch said the treatment involves taking the patient's immune cells and engineering them so they can identify and attack the cancer.
He said the patient's immune cells will be collected in Saskatoon and sent to a laboratory in the United States, where they will be multiplied and modified. The cells will then be sent back to Saskatoon to be infused into the patient.
Bosch said that when the engineered cells are put into the patient and come into contact with the cancer cells, "they will immediately destroy them throughout the patient's body."
"Prior to CAR T this patient population would be considered palliative with a limited life expectancy. CAR T is a last chance, the last hope for a cure."
Bosch said the treatment will not work for all patients, "but it is a beginning of a new era in medicine a world of immunology where living cells can cure cancer and we've only scratched the surface. We will now be able to take part in this future right here in Saskatchewan."
