April is Cancer month, marked by the Daffodil campaign across Canada.
Canadians began tracking cancer cases in1930, beginning in Saskatchewan and since then health professionals here have learned so much about diagnosing and treating the more than 200 diseases called cancer. Today, the good news is that more cancer patients are living longer and this trend will continue into the future.
Of course Canadians want to continue to raise the bar in the fight against cancer. And to do this, those leading the fight know that a national cancer strategy is needed. We need to be more seamless in how we address cancer, from prevention, to screening, to diagnosis and finally the treatment of cancer, across the country. This will require a mind shift to thinking about cancer as a process, largely chronic but with acute episodes, rather than an event and will challenge all stakeholders in the fight against cancer including health care professionals, public policy makers, cancer care agencies, cancer charities, patients, families and all Canadians, to think about this disease differently.
On April 25th, Jeff Lozon, President and CEO of St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto and the inaugural Chair of the new Canadian Partnership Against Cancer announced by Prime Minister Harper last November, joins us to discuss the progress being made in a national cancer strategy and the re-thinking going on in the fight against the many diseases called cancer.
