Anyone with a prostate can get prostate cancer, the most commonly diagnosed cancer among Canadian men. To put it in perspective, 1 in 8 men will face a diagnosis of prostate cancer during their lifetime. While survival rates have improved over the last few decades, this cancer is riskier and harder to treat if it has spread to other parts of the body.
CCS-funded researcher Dr Cynthia Ménard is taking action against advanced prostate cancer. Thanks to funding from the Prostate Cancer Canada Advanced Imaging Targeted Grant and Movember, she is running a clinical trial to test a new form of imaging that can better find and track prostate cancer spread.
The trial has already been successful in helping people with prostate cancer. Robert Gagné, a prostate cancer survivor from Quebec, has experienced life-changing results.
“[My diagnosis] felt like the end of the world,” Robert says. “But I was fortunate. I was invited to participate in Dr Ménard’s groundbreaking clinical trial. Thanks in part to that trial, I’m now cancer free.”
That success has given Robert the chance to live life to the fullest and make time for the things that really matter to him.
“Now I see my grandchildren every week and that’s what truly counts,” he says.
Robert is only one of many people Dr Ménard’s innovative research has helped. Nearly half of the people who received her new imaging technique showed new areas of cancer spread – areas standard methods failed to detect.
“We believe we can track and target advanced prostate cancer more effectively [using this technique] – and that means more lives saved,” Dr Ménard says.
Robert recognizes that none of this work would be possible without funding from organizations like CCS.
“Your donation is key to helping – and will be so appreciated by people like me,” he says. “Together, we can fund life-saving cancer research to help create more tomorrows.”