Montreal cancer advocate: lack of funding for research hindering Quebec Cancer Registry
Posted July 12, 2022 2:12 pm.
Last Updated July 12, 2022 6:48 pm.
Now in his fifth recurrence of cancer, after being in remission four times and surviving a rare soft tissue sarcoma called Rhabdomyosarcoma, Montrealer Sean Millroy says after three years he is still looking for a cure or any further treatment that can help. This time time around, outside of Quebec.
“I know I have what it takes to beat this. I just need to find my cure,” says Milroy, adding, “I know that there are…treatments out there for me that could potentially give me that cure. It’s just a process that will take me out of where I live, unfortunately.”
Millroy contacted CityNews about his search – which he’s dubbed tour for the cure – after hundreds of chemotherapy sessions, radiation treatments, and a stem cell transplant. He says doctors in Quebec have maxed out treatment options for him.
“I’m sort of out of options in Quebec, so in order to get the drugs that could potentially cure me or the more targeted treatments that could cure me, I have to leave Montreal and go to the United States to hopefully find that.”
The Quebec Cancer Registry is an online tool used for monitoring and providing data on different cancers to oncologists. It was put in place 12 years ago, but Millroy says it doesn’t do enough to help.
“For someone who lives in Montreal or elsewhere in Quebec, these treatments are just either not available or there’s not enough data.”
The province’s health ministry tells CityNews that The Quebec Cancer Registry has no connection with the treatment options available in the province, adding that The Cancer Registry is an evolving database of cancer incidence by age, gender, and more.
Millroy says, it still poses a problem as the lack of information and data on rare types of cancers – restricts oncologists from providing full care to those in need like him.
“We’re all stonewalled at some point from receiving more personalized care, which when you have a rare cancer, I mean, that’s the answer. You need personalized, targeted treatments for the individual…if the oncologists don’t have the tools they need to provide that for the patients…the patients are just stuck in limbo and some fall through the cracks.”
An oncologist CityNews reached out to – told us – in many cases that deal with rare types of cancer like Millroy’s – the information is limited because there isn’t enough opportunity to conduct research – adding that in most cases individuals with rare types of cancer must go to larger research facilities to obtain treatment. Although The Health Ministry warns against medical tourism.
For Millroy, there is much more the Quebec government can do and should do more to support and fund research – and keep patients here.
“There’s a lot more we can do to support our citizens on the provincial side because we’re paying the cost. I know that we can do a lot better in Quebec in terms of giving the oncologists and the health care professionals the resources they need and the data they need to enroll people like me in treatments that could cure us.”
Millroy will be documenting his journey in trying to find a cure or any further treatment that can help.
