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By Sam Bennison

To Your Health

How a local doctor’s groundbreaking cancer trials reduce patient wait times

Feb 6, 2024 | 11:26 AM

PRINCE GEORGE—Sunday, February 4, 2024 was World Cancer Day and on this weeks To Your Health we take a look into the internationally recognized radiation therapy research being performed right here in Prince George.

SABR stands for Stereotactic Ablative Radiotherapy which is a powerful beam of radiation that destroyed localized tumours throughout the body. By being localized to a certain part of the body it means that the side effects are far less drastic compared to chemotherapy

“Radiation side effects are really based on where you aim. So, if you aim to the middle of a lung, it doesn’t really hurt because you don’t have pain fibers there them and you might get a bit short of breath,” explains Dr. Rob Olson, Radiation Oncologist at BC Cancer Centre. “While, chemotherapy gives more systemic effects throughout the body like nausea and vomiting, sometimes gets hair loss, etc.”

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The trial was performed on Joe Lepage for tumours throughout the his lungs. Lepage has had recurring cancer throughout his life, starting with lukemia, causing many painful chemotherapy treatments. The treatment provided by Dr. Olson not only worked but had far less side effects compared to the chemotherapy he received.

“Dr. Olsen took me on this SABR trial, laid me on that table nine times for 50 minutes at a time,” describes, Joe Lepage. “They vaporize these tumors out of my lungs, and they’re gone. They were gone just like that. You could kind of see where they were, I guess, but I’ve had no recurrences in over two years.

Since the treatment, Dr. Oslon and his team have been working reducing the number of SABR treatment required per patient. If it works, it can reduce wait times for patients by reducing resources and allowing doctors to treat patients faster.

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Email: sam.bennison@pattisonmedia.com