By Cheryl Jahn

Northern oncologist breaks the mold

Jun 18, 2021 | 4:01 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – Even before the Cancer Centre for the North was built, Dr. Rob Olson was in the community and has been breaking the mold ever since. Currently, he is running an international clinical trial on a very aggressive cancer treatment that involves the application of something called SABR to sites of cancer spread to improve survival. That clinical trial is being run in Ontario, Scotland, Ireland and Australia, and Dr. Olson is adding bc’s northwest to that list.

“But we’re trying to push the boundary on is letting somebody who’s very well-trained in Terrace, they do the physical exam. I remote in, do a video call with them and we still allowed to operate the clinical trial but they don’t have to drive to Prince George every three months for five to ten years.”

He says he has had a patient opt-out of participating in his clinical trial because the travel was too demanding.

“I have been advocating to improve access to clinical trials for northern, rural, remote, and Indigenous communities since I was recruited to the North in 2010, and I believe increasing access will lead to better treatment options and outcomes for northern patients,” he says. “We have a dynamic team in Terrace which includes Dr. Jaco Fourie, Dr. Jo Collins, and Dr. Denise Jaworsky. They will be completing clinical trial training, which will enable them to participate in patient trial follow-up visits, perform trial specific physical examinations, and record and report benefits and potential adverse events from the SABR treatments.”

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Patients are currently being accrued to the SABR-COMET-3 clinical trial from across B.C. and the international sites. Dr. Olson and the Terrace team are in the planning phases of this northwest pilot project, which includes signing up to the trial study team and partnering with Northern Health (NH) to develop the necessary protocols and documentation. Dr. Julia Bickford, NH Regional Director of research evaluation and analytics, will be helping to build clinical trial infrastructure including the set-up of training for NH members of the team.