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Help Suzanne Aucoin
July 6, 2007 - The St. Catharines Standard
By PETER DOWNS
St. Catharines Standard
Part 20
She assumes the classic stance of a boxer in the photo.
One fist, bound tightly in a red leather boxing glove, is jabbing toward the
camera.
The other, held closer to her body, is cocked and ready to throw a punch.
There's a glint in her eye. She's not afraid of the fight. She's ready for
it. She can take care of herself.
The photo was shot three years ago after Suzanne Aucoin was rediagnosed with
colorectal cancer. It is a symbol of her determination to battle a disease
that's trying to kill her.
But the photo has gained greater meaning since it was first taken.
Aucoin, 36, isn't only a cancer fighter.
She's also developed a profile as an outspoken critic of provincial health
policies she sees as a barrier to effective and equitable treatment for
people with cancer.
And Aucoin is once again lacing up her gloves to go toe-to-toe with
Ontario's Health Ministry.
The St. Catharines woman has been turned down by the province for funding
through OHIP's out-of-country health benefits program for a specialized form
of radiation therapy she paid to receive in the U.S. last month.
Health Ministry officials were already in the midst of reviewing the
out-of-country benefits program after a scathing report by Ontario's
ombudsman earlier this year found the ministry had badly bungled a previous
funding application by Aucoin for a different form of cancer treatment.
Aucoin is planning to appeal the ministry's latest funding rejection.
"It just frustrates me that we continually have substandard care in Ontario
and the general public doesn't know that. Part of me wants to highlight the
issue," she said, sitting in the backyard of the home she shares with her
parents in Port Dalhousie.
"Yeah, there's still part of me that likes a good fight, I think."
Aucoin, on leave from her position as chaplain at Denis Morris High School,
travelled to a hospital in North Carolina a month ago to receive a
specialized form of radiation therapy not commercially available in Ontario.
The procedure - selective internal radiation therapy or SIR-Spheres -
delivers millions of microscopic spheres of radiation directly to liver
tumours.
Conventional radiation therapy hits a general area of the body and can cause
severe damage to nearby tissues and organs.
Aucoin's doctors have ruled out surgery and conventional radiation to try to
reduce the size of the large tumour on the right side of her liver.
Aucoin returned to WakeMed Heath Center in Raleigh, N.C., last week for a
follow-up visit and said she received encouraging CT results.
The scan showed three dark spots on the liver tumour where the cancerous
cells have begun to die.
"(My doctor) is pretty happy with the results," she said. "He's also pleased
with my liver function, considering what I've been through."
The procedure doesn't promise to cure Aucoin's cancer. But she hopes it may
prolong her life.
Aucoin hasn't received a final tally for the radiation therapy and
associated medical expenses. She expects to be billed in the neighbourhood
of $80,000 to $100,000 US.
The Health Ministry has denied Aucoin out-of-country coverage for the
procedure, maintaining it is considered experimental in Ontario and not the
standard practice of care for a patient in her condition.
"I think they're saying because I have other (tumours), it's not of value,"
Aucoin said. "They don't really look at a maintenance approach."
Aucoin was given two weeks to appeal the ministry's decision from the time
she received it June 28.
She's in the process of putting together a formal letter of appeal. "Just
normal living for me is such a challenge and yet here I am thinking, 'Maybe
I would like to take them on again. Maybe I'd like to go a round or two with
OHIP again.' "
Between April 2002 and March 2007, the Health Ministry says it agreed to pay
a total of $281,909 for 10 patients to receive treatments with SIR-spheres
outside the country.
The patients were treated at Royal Free Hospital in London and Winship
Cancer Institute in Atlanta.
A ministry spokesman told The Standard the treatment has not been approved
for any patients, such as Aucoin, with colorectal cancer that has spread to
the liver.
Only patients with neuroendocrine tumours have received approval for
treatment with SIR-spheres outside the country, said spokesman David Jensen.
But Aucoin contends SIR-spheres can be effective at shrinking or stabilizing
liver tumours in patients whose primary cancer began in the colon.
"I'm really about wanting to ensure people get the best and the latest
treatment," she said. "I can usually figure it out for myself, and I just
want to make it easier for others to have the opportunity."
pdowns@stcatharinesstandard.ca
By PETER DOWNS
St. Catharines Standard
Part 20
She assumes the classic stance of a boxer in the photo.
One fist, bound tightly in a red leather boxing glove, is jabbing toward the
camera.
The other, held closer to her body, is cocked and ready to throw a punch.
There's a glint in her eye. She's not afraid of the fight. She's ready for
it. She can take care of herself.
The photo was shot three years ago after Suzanne Aucoin was rediagnosed with
colorectal cancer. It is a symbol of her determination to battle a disease
that's trying to kill her.
But the photo has gained greater meaning since it was first taken.
Aucoin, 36, isn't only a cancer fighter.
She's also developed a profile as an outspoken critic of provincial health
policies she sees as a barrier to effective and equitable treatment for
people with cancer.
And Aucoin is once again lacing up her gloves to go toe-to-toe with
Ontario's Health Ministry.
The St. Catharines woman has been turned down by the province for funding
through OHIP's out-of-country health benefits program for a specialized form
of radiation therapy she paid to receive in the U.S. last month.
Health Ministry officials were already in the midst of reviewing the
out-of-country benefits program after a scathing report by Ontario's
ombudsman earlier this year found the ministry had badly bungled a previous
funding application by Aucoin for a different form of cancer treatment.
Aucoin is planning to appeal the ministry's latest funding rejection.
"It just frustrates me that we continually have substandard care in Ontario
and the general public doesn't know that. Part of me wants to highlight the
issue," she said, sitting in the backyard of the home she shares with her
parents in Port Dalhousie.
"Yeah, there's still part of me that likes a good fight, I think."
Aucoin, on leave from her position as chaplain at Denis Morris High School,
travelled to a hospital in North Carolina a month ago to receive a
specialized form of radiation therapy not commercially available in Ontario.
The procedure - selective internal radiation therapy or SIR-Spheres -
delivers millions of microscopic spheres of radiation directly to liver
tumours.
Conventional radiation therapy hits a general area of the body and can cause
severe damage to nearby tissues and organs.
Aucoin's doctors have ruled out surgery and conventional radiation to try to
reduce the size of the large tumour on the right side of her liver.
Aucoin returned to WakeMed Heath Center in Raleigh, N.C., last week for a
follow-up visit and said she received encouraging CT results.
The scan showed three dark spots on the liver tumour where the cancerous
cells have begun to die.
"(My doctor) is pretty happy with the results," she said. "He's also pleased
with my liver function, considering what I've been through."
The procedure doesn't promise to cure Aucoin's cancer. But she hopes it may
prolong her life.
Aucoin hasn't received a final tally for the radiation therapy and
associated medical expenses. She expects to be billed in the neighbourhood
of $80,000 to $100,000 US.
The Health Ministry has denied Aucoin out-of-country coverage for the
procedure, maintaining it is considered experimental in Ontario and not the
standard practice of care for a patient in her condition.
"I think they're saying because I have other (tumours), it's not of value,"
Aucoin said. "They don't really look at a maintenance approach."
Aucoin was given two weeks to appeal the ministry's decision from the time
she received it June 28.
She's in the process of putting together a formal letter of appeal. "Just
normal living for me is such a challenge and yet here I am thinking, 'Maybe
I would like to take them on again. Maybe I'd like to go a round or two with
OHIP again.' "
Between April 2002 and March 2007, the Health Ministry says it agreed to pay
a total of $281,909 for 10 patients to receive treatments with SIR-spheres
outside the country.
The patients were treated at Royal Free Hospital in London and Winship
Cancer Institute in Atlanta.
A ministry spokesman told The Standard the treatment has not been approved
for any patients, such as Aucoin, with colorectal cancer that has spread to
the liver.
Only patients with neuroendocrine tumours have received approval for
treatment with SIR-spheres outside the country, said spokesman David Jensen.
But Aucoin contends SIR-spheres can be effective at shrinking or stabilizing
liver tumours in patients whose primary cancer began in the colon.
"I'm really about wanting to ensure people get the best and the latest
treatment," she said. "I can usually figure it out for myself, and I just
want to make it easier for others to have the opportunity."
pdowns@stcatharinesstandard.ca