Medical advancements are turning the tide on cancer treatment, but access barriers persist. Learn why Canada needs health system reform now.
Cancer remains a leading global health challenge, but decades of innovation are redefining treatment. Canadians, however, still face barriers to timely, optimal care, including long diagnostic waits, resource and funding gaps, and disparities in treatment access. When Edmonton’s Gloria Trimble was diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2016, she learned her chemotherapy was developed in the 1960s and wondered, “With so much research, why haven’t treatments advanced?”
Innovative treatments exist, but many are inaccessible in Canada. Slower approval and market-access timelines mean patients often wait years longer for treatments available elsewhere. Compounding this, system readiness remains a shared challenge: hospitals are overburdened, clinicians stretch limited resources, and governments must balance difficult trade-offs to deliver value across all areas of public spending.
These barriers carry real human costs, from financial strain to declining quality of life. “Between diagnosis and treatment, the wait was excruciating,” Trimble recalls. “I was fortunate to live near my local care centre and have my husband drive me — I can only imagine the struggle for those who are alone or out of town.” Gloria’s experience underscores what’s at stake when the system isn’t ready.
Inequities in care delivery
Canada has taken steps toward improving treatment access, particularly through policies from Canada’s Drug Agency and the pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance, yet access remains uneven. Where you live still shapes your care: availability of treatments and clinical trials varies by region, and rural patients face greater travel burdens than those in cities. Coverage for the same therapies differs by province and territory, and limited access to family physicians delays diagnosis and referral.
Further, emerging cancer therapies can strain health systems not built for their complexity. Some therapies require timed combinations with other drugs, “targeted” treatments need genetic testing to confirm appropriate patients, and others demand intensive monitoring or hospital administration for adverse effects.
“The global pace of advancements in cancer care highlights and widens the disparity gaps within Canada,” explains Michelle Colero, Executive Director of Bladder Cancer Canada. “Where other countries are embracing innovation, Canada continues to see hesitancy with new therapies, uneven access to required technologies, language barriers, and lagging access to novel treatments.”
System reforms underway
Promising system changes are underway to close gaps and put patients first. At the point of care, quality-of-life measures are being built into treatment plans, and provinces are renewing efforts to connect every Canadian with a family physician. On the regulatory approval front, Canada’s participation in Project Orbis — an international review process aimed at speeding up access to promising treatments — is shortening Health Canada’s approval timelines. To turn approvals into access, Ontario will be piloting a model to reduce patient access times by nine months, helping address the post-approval bottleneck often seen during pricing negotiations and health technology assessments.
The goal is a patient-centred health system that keeps pace with scientific advances. “A ‘ready’ system delivers earlier diagnoses and faster access to innovative cancer therapies, helping improve patient outcomes, lower long-term costs, and sustain quality of life for patients and their families,” explains Michelle Colero. “The responsibility of establishing such a system will fall on all stakeholder groups and require a coordinated approach among industry partners, governments, health care providers, and patients.”
This article was made possible by the support of Pfizer Canada.
