The cancer reality is stark

It’s been a busy week… cancer drugs are breaking budgets. ER waits are making patients sicker. And now… Ketamine?

Canada is running out of money to fight cancer 🔒

Keytruda is a known budget breaker — but demand is rising. The immunotherapy drug, which helps treat a growing list of cancers including melanoma, has become Canada’s biggest hospital drug expense. It cost the country $800 million in a single year, and has been the subject of more than 2,800 clinical trials worldwide — including trials for this breakthrough cancer vaccine.

But these costs aren’t just breaking hospital budgets; they’re breaking families, too.

So, who’s picking up this $15 million tab?

Demand for support is surging across the board. Childhood Cancer Canada is pressing for more money in the next federal budget after experiencing a 40 per cent increase in demand over the past two years. The foundation plans to use the money to better support the families of the 1,500 kids who are diagnosed with cancer every year in Canada.

And don't forget… the reality is stark: Cancer rates are already expected to double by 2030.

Patients are getting sicker in emergency rooms 🔒

The “access block” that Canadian patients experience in an emergency department is really a domino effect: when patients can’t leave because the next level of care isn’t available, beds stay occupied, ED’s can’t move patients upstairs, the waiting room swells, and some patients get sicker.

So, imagine this: instead of spending 14 hours in a waiting-room chair, medically stable patients get a text when it’s their turn to come back. If a smoothie shop can text a customer when it’s their turn in line, surely an emergency department can do the same — at least, that’s the two cents Jacob Beaulieu puts forward in this Hill Times piece.

Others are turning to… Ketamine? 🔒

Ketamine is already widely used in Canada to block pain and ease mental health conditions. Now, when paired with psychotherapy, it’s said to help with nerve pain that feels “worse than death”.

If one in 10 Canadians suffer from chronic pain, about half of those patients experience nerve pain. This clinical study found that 80 per cent of patients who combined ketamine with psychotherapy experienced a meaningful reduction in pain.

The combination can be thought of as a catalyst: it removes weeds so that new seeds — and new flowers — can grow.