Canadian cancer clinicians call for urgent, vital improvements to cancer care

New cancer clinician initiative calls attention to challenges faced daily by clinicians on behalf of their patients

OTTAWA, ON and SASKATOON, SK, July 8, 2025 /CNW/ - A group of Canadian clinicians who care for and treat cancer patients has launched a new platform to give voice to their calls for urgent and vitally needed changes and improvements in cancer care across Canada.

The Cancer Clinician Advocacy Forum (CCAF) is a newly established network of cancer care clinicians from across Canada – including pharmacists, nurses and physicians – who are committed to improving care for patients. Together, they aim to address public policy issues that impact the quality, accessibility and outcomes of cancer care.

CCAF has now launched its own website to publicize its issues and positions at cancerclinicianadvocacy.ca.

"We want to draw attention to the problems we as cancer care clinicians face on behalf of our patients every day across Canada in providing equitable and timely access to diagnosis, treatment and care for a disease that will affect nearly half of Canadians in their lifetime," said CCAF Co-Chair Dr.  Sandeep Sehdev, a medical oncologist at the Ottawa Hospital Cancer Centre.

"We also want to help our health systems develop and implement practical solutions to these issues," said Dr. Mita Manna, the other CCAF Co-Chair and a medical oncologist at the Saskatchewan Cancer Agency in Saskatoon.

Members of CCAF are raising a united voice to seek urgent action on three key priorities for cancer care in Canada:

• Expanding access to diagnostic testing, including molecular genetic testing that more accurately defines each cancer, leading to more targeted and effective treatment
• Ensuring faster and more equitable access to cancer therapies to improve outcomes
• Improving efficiencies in patient care and addressing human resources constraints

This urgent action is needed to overcome the challenges and barriers being faced by health professionals in providing optimal cancer care for their patients, including these four key issues:

• Lack of primary care: More than one in five Canadians do not have a primary care provider, resulting in delays that lead to cancer diagnoses at a later stage when it is harder to treat effectively.
• Delays in new medicines: Canada ranks last in the G7 and 19th out of 20 leading countries for the time it takes for patients to access newly approved medicines.
• Access issues for the best technology and therapy: Cancer clinicians face unacceptable delays and restrictions in accessing optimal technologies and therapies for patients. Physicians across specialties spend 8.5 million hours per year on unnecessary administrative tasks – time that could be spent instead on 55.6 million patient visits.
• Lack of preparedness for genomic medicine: There is high variability among provinces in providing timely access to the molecular testing that results in improved survivorship and health outcomes.

About Cancer Clinician Advocacy Forum

CCAF emerged out of a two-day forum in Toronto in September 2023, which resulted in a formal report published in Current Oncology in February 2024, co-authored by 19 experts from across Canada. This report highlights the frustration clinicians experience due to lengthy delays in the approval and funding of optimal technologies and therapies for their patients. For more about CCAF, visit the website at cancerclinicianadvocacy.ca.

SOURCE Cancer Clinician Advocacy Forum

For further information or media interviews: Don Sancton, Telephone: [phone], Email: [email protected]