Northern Cancer Foundation celebrates successes

The Northern Cancer Foundation aims to be northerners' first choice for their charity dollars when it comes to cancer research and patient support, says its executive director Tannys Laughren.

“The community has been very generous, but there are 22,000 cancer charities out there,” she said. “All those other charities are doing great work, but people are making a choice to keep their money in Sudbury and to support their cancer centre.”

The Northern Cancer Foundation celebrated its successes over the past year at its second Mayor's Reception for Hope event.

Laughren said Sudbury Mayor Brian Bigger has been a strong advocate for local research, and added she hopes the mayor's reception can become an annual event.

In the 2014-2015 fiscal year the cancer foundation raised more than $2 million in donations.

More than $200,000 was invested in patient equipment, including a DNA sequencing machine – to determine a patient's predilection for certain cancers – and some brachytherapy equipment, to more effectively treat prostate cancer.

“There's a never-ending need for cancer equipment,” Laughren said. “Especially research equipment.”

The Northern Cancer Foundation also spent more than $500,000 on research that fiscal year.

Some work focused on smoking cessation, to help decrease Northern Ontario's high lung cancer rate – when compared to the provincial and national averages.

Other research, said Laughren, has looked at improving screening methods, and determining the best treatment for patients.

Chemotherapy, for example, is only effective against 25 per cent of cancer cases, Laughren said, and has long-lasting side effects.

If a doctor can know in advance chemotherapy won't work for a patient, they can choose other treatments instead.

“There are other therapies that are just as effective,” Laughren said.
The research the Northern Cancer Foundation helps fund also contributes to the local economy, she added.

“All those researchers that we're funding live in Sudbury, spend their money in Sudbury, send their kids to school in Sudbury,” said Laughren.