- 注册
- 2002-10-07
- 消息
- 402,183
- 荣誉分数
- 76
- 声望点数
- 0
Ontario’s Ministry of Health is preparing for clinical trials on a promising treatment for pancreatic cancer — a ray of hope against a dark prognosis.
But Hy Elmas, 69, does not have the luxury of time. “It’s not a bad tooth,” says the retired property manager, nearly pounding his meaty fist on the kitchen table, birds chirping outside on a sunny day in Centrepointe.
“It’s cancer and it kills.”
While a Toronto hospital’s “ethics review board” fiddles with the trial’s design, Elmas researches with a growing frustration: the use of IRE (irreversible electroporation), under its commercial name “NanoKnife,” is fairly common in clinics in the U.S., Germany and Britain, with some celebrated success.
One night, near midnight, Elmas called a German doctor well-known for performing the procedure on Canadians. Dr. Matthias Birth picked up the phone in the Baltic coastal town of Stralsund. Yes, if his scans were favourable, Dr. Birth would perform IRE on his tumour, for about $34,000.
“I’ve seen so many things with our health system,” said Elmas, who has lost 27 pounds so far. “We are so slow. We lose patients. It’s happened to my friends. This business of approving things takes so long. I mean, why re-invent the wheel?”
First hit with stomach problems in September, he underwent a whirlwind of tests (four MRIs, five CT-scans), finally a biopsy in January found a cancerous tumour on his pancreas. An initial surgery to remove the growth found multiple spots on his liver.
As chemo was being rolled out, he was told in a stinging meeting he might have a year to live. It was news that armed him with a potent desperation: he charged ahead looking for alternatives, be it diet, naturopathy or unconventional treatments.
He soon came across the coverage of Hector Macmillan, 59, the mayor of Trent Hills, near Peterborough, and his vocal campaign to bring the NanoKnife IRE treatment to Ontario.
He was diagnosed with late-stage pancreatic cancer in 2015 and led a failed battle for OHIP funding to travel to Germany. He had to raise $60,000 for his own treatment and regularly accused the Ontario government of sentencing him to death. Media coverage was plentiful.
The treatment in October was successful, at least in the short term. Macmillan — who has advised Elmas and others, including former Ottawa Rough Rider Rick Sowieta — was asked this week where he’d be without the trip to Germany.
“Dead. Six feet under, or in a jar on a shelf.”
He said about 40 per cent of pancreatic cancer patients are candidates for IRE, which destroys cancer cells by zapping them with electrical impulses that don’t harm the surrounding tissue. (Others put the figure at 10 to 20 per cent.) The pulse is delivered by thin needles that surround the tumour. One U.S. study said it can double life expectancy.
Macmillan said subsequent scans in Canada have found no cancer. “Do I sound like a dying man to you? I’m in such good shape, I’m practically dangerous.”
He was pleased to see the Ontario government announce $2.1 million for the clinical trial but is continuing to push Health Minister Eric Hoskins to speed things along. “I’m hounding the ministry on that one.”
For Elmas, however, there are sticking points. He was told he needs to “clean” his liver with chemotherapy before the German doctor will proceed with IRE on the pancreas. (The one German clinic has treated about 15 Canadians in the two years.)
“Now I’m desperate. I want that liver to be cleaned, so I can go.”
The news with Sowieta, meanwhile, is mixed. He underwent the procedure in Germany on Feb. 23 — successfully, he thinks — only to discover shortly after returning to Canada that another pancreatic tumour had started. He is now being treated with radiation and chemo.
“Had we not gone to Germany, he might have passed by now,” said his wife Jen, who expressed gratitude for the wave of community support, while backing the use of IRE in Ontario. “The only other option we had was doing nothing and just waiting to die.”
A spokesman for the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto said the trial, to be approved this summer, is intended to study the results of IRE versus conventional treatments. And there is a caution.
“The (NanoKnife) device,” she wrote, “has been approved as safe for use but its value at various stages of pancreatic cancer has not been determined beyond the fact that it is not seen as effective for those with Stage 4 pancreatic cancers.”
Elmas, who came to Canada from Turkey in 1970, worries about the effects on his wife, four kids and five grandchildren.
“My only worry is my family. I wish I could say I’ll be around another 20 years, but I don’t know where this medicine thing is going to take me.”
To contact Kelly Egan, please call 613-726-5896 or email kegan@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/kellyegancolumn
查看原文...
But Hy Elmas, 69, does not have the luxury of time. “It’s not a bad tooth,” says the retired property manager, nearly pounding his meaty fist on the kitchen table, birds chirping outside on a sunny day in Centrepointe.
“It’s cancer and it kills.”
While a Toronto hospital’s “ethics review board” fiddles with the trial’s design, Elmas researches with a growing frustration: the use of IRE (irreversible electroporation), under its commercial name “NanoKnife,” is fairly common in clinics in the U.S., Germany and Britain, with some celebrated success.
One night, near midnight, Elmas called a German doctor well-known for performing the procedure on Canadians. Dr. Matthias Birth picked up the phone in the Baltic coastal town of Stralsund. Yes, if his scans were favourable, Dr. Birth would perform IRE on his tumour, for about $34,000.
“I’ve seen so many things with our health system,” said Elmas, who has lost 27 pounds so far. “We are so slow. We lose patients. It’s happened to my friends. This business of approving things takes so long. I mean, why re-invent the wheel?”
First hit with stomach problems in September, he underwent a whirlwind of tests (four MRIs, five CT-scans), finally a biopsy in January found a cancerous tumour on his pancreas. An initial surgery to remove the growth found multiple spots on his liver.
As chemo was being rolled out, he was told in a stinging meeting he might have a year to live. It was news that armed him with a potent desperation: he charged ahead looking for alternatives, be it diet, naturopathy or unconventional treatments.
He soon came across the coverage of Hector Macmillan, 59, the mayor of Trent Hills, near Peterborough, and his vocal campaign to bring the NanoKnife IRE treatment to Ontario.
He was diagnosed with late-stage pancreatic cancer in 2015 and led a failed battle for OHIP funding to travel to Germany. He had to raise $60,000 for his own treatment and regularly accused the Ontario government of sentencing him to death. Media coverage was plentiful.
The treatment in October was successful, at least in the short term. Macmillan — who has advised Elmas and others, including former Ottawa Rough Rider Rick Sowieta — was asked this week where he’d be without the trip to Germany.
“Dead. Six feet under, or in a jar on a shelf.”
He said about 40 per cent of pancreatic cancer patients are candidates for IRE, which destroys cancer cells by zapping them with electrical impulses that don’t harm the surrounding tissue. (Others put the figure at 10 to 20 per cent.) The pulse is delivered by thin needles that surround the tumour. One U.S. study said it can double life expectancy.
Macmillan said subsequent scans in Canada have found no cancer. “Do I sound like a dying man to you? I’m in such good shape, I’m practically dangerous.”
He was pleased to see the Ontario government announce $2.1 million for the clinical trial but is continuing to push Health Minister Eric Hoskins to speed things along. “I’m hounding the ministry on that one.”
For Elmas, however, there are sticking points. He was told he needs to “clean” his liver with chemotherapy before the German doctor will proceed with IRE on the pancreas. (The one German clinic has treated about 15 Canadians in the two years.)
“Now I’m desperate. I want that liver to be cleaned, so I can go.”
The news with Sowieta, meanwhile, is mixed. He underwent the procedure in Germany on Feb. 23 — successfully, he thinks — only to discover shortly after returning to Canada that another pancreatic tumour had started. He is now being treated with radiation and chemo.
“Had we not gone to Germany, he might have passed by now,” said his wife Jen, who expressed gratitude for the wave of community support, while backing the use of IRE in Ontario. “The only other option we had was doing nothing and just waiting to die.”
A spokesman for the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto said the trial, to be approved this summer, is intended to study the results of IRE versus conventional treatments. And there is a caution.
“The (NanoKnife) device,” she wrote, “has been approved as safe for use but its value at various stages of pancreatic cancer has not been determined beyond the fact that it is not seen as effective for those with Stage 4 pancreatic cancers.”
Elmas, who came to Canada from Turkey in 1970, worries about the effects on his wife, four kids and five grandchildren.
“My only worry is my family. I wish I could say I’ll be around another 20 years, but I don’t know where this medicine thing is going to take me.”
To contact Kelly Egan, please call 613-726-5896 or email kegan@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/kellyegancolumn
查看原文...
