The report, Cancer in Canada: Framing the Crisis and Previewing the Opportunity for Donors [PDF], specifically highlights pancreatic, stomach, lung, and colorectal cancers as the most underfunded diseases relative to their deadly impact on Canadians. In terms of charitable giving, these cancers represent an opportunity for donors to make a true impact on the lives of Canadians touched by these deadly diseases.

While increasing the survival rate of all cancers through prevention and treatment is always a key goal, the report points out that the need for palliative care—the care of cancer victims who will not survive—is significant and ever-growing. The availability of palliative care is essential  to enable cancer victims to “live out their lives in the greatest possible comfort, while reducing the burden on their loved ones and mitigating the escalation in Canada’s health care costs.” Funding palliative care would enables donors to make “an immediate and measurable difference.”

The DIVA Foundation supports this view of the significance of funding palliative care as part of the overall spectrum of treatment available to Canadians suffering with cancer and other diseases.

In 2009, the DIVA Foundation recognized Dr. Louise Coulombe, an Ottawa-based palliative care physician, for her extraordinary humanitarian help, care, and services to individuals, families, groups, and communities in the area of palliative care. She was awarded the DIVA Citation at the Celebrating Excellence in Hospice Palliative Care and Recognizing the Challenges luncheon hosted by the DIVA Foundation and the Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association (CHPCA). The DIVA Foundation provided a donation to four charities of Dr. Coulombe’s choice: the Friends of Hospice Ottawa, Roger’s House, The Hospice at May Court, and The Palliative Care Outreach Program.

DIVA continues to be a strong supporter of palliative care in the community. This past weekend, the DIVA Board of Directors participated as volunteers at the 6^th Annual Hike for Hospice Palliative Care event, helping with participant registration and distribution of event T-shirts. For more information about Friends of Hospice, visit their web site: http://www.friendsofhospiceottawa.ca/home.html

To find out more about the Charity Intelligence Canada report and related topics, read the story on CBC.ca.

WebMD reports that the following common symptoms may be cancer warning signs:

1. Unexplained weight loss
2. Bloating
3. Breast changes
4. Between-period or other unusual bleeding
5. Skin changes
6. Difficulty swallowing
7. Blood in the wrong place
8. Abdominal pain or depression
9. Indigestion
10. Mouth changes
11. Persistence pain
12. Changes in the lymph nodes
13. Unexplained fever
14. Persistent fatigue
15. Persistent cough

Read about how and when these symptoms may be early warning signs of cancer: http://www.webmd.com/cancer/features/15-cancer-symptoms-women-ignore

The StatsCan study indicates that a clear association exists between the occurrence of type 2 diabetes in women and their socio-economic level. In particular, women in lower-income households were more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than those in high-income households.

Read the CBC news story: http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2010/08/18/diabetes-income-canadians.html#ixzz0xA5NdqRB

Read the Statistics Canada study: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/82-003-x/2010003/article/11325-eng.htm

To read more about this study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, see the article on CBC.ca.

Problem is, there simply just aren’t enough doctors and specialists to go around. This is not a new problem in Canada but what is new, in a study released in April that discovered that specialist wait times are in fact higher for women. A study done by Statistics Canada found that women are much less likely than men to see a specialist within a month of their initial visit.

The report states that 51 per cent of men said they saw a specialist within a month, compared with 42 per cent of women.

So, what does this mean for Canadian women? Well, really don’t wait. Go to the doctor when you start to feel sick or there is a problem. And be sure to follow-up if you think it is taking a while to get the appointment with a specialist.

To read more about the Statistics Canada study and its findings, read the article on the CBC website.

This week, American researchers reported that a simple blood screen followed up by an ultrasound as indicated by the blood test detected malignant ovarian tumours with minimal false alarms. Although the study is relatively preliminary, it supports early results from a larger study underway in the UK that will show clearer results in the next few years.

Currently, no reliable screening test exists to diagnose ovarian cancer. Symptoms and markers can be vague or elusive, and exploratory surgery is required to confirm a diagnosis. This can lead to either avoiding or delaying diagnosis, or the opposite problem of treating symptoms that aren’t necessarily cancerous with an invasive surgical procedure. The researchers studying the blood test plus ultrasound screening method believe that they are on track to developing a screening process that will find aggressive tumours while avoiding unnecessary false positives and subsequent surgeries.

According to the Ovarian Cancer Canada organization, the risk of developing ovarian cancer increases as women age: 60% of those diagnosed are over the age of 50. To find out more about the symptoms, treatments and prognosis of ovarian cancer, visit Ovarian Cancer Canada.

Read more about this new research on ovarian cancer screening at Medscape Medical News or CBC News.

You can read more about the Safety Siren app in the CBC News or the Toronto Star.

The report summarized that there is an ever increasing burden placed on family members of cancer patients when dealing with the end-of-life care. One of the main factors is this is due to the rise in the number of deaths associated with cancer. This increase in combination with a weak support system for patients and family members means that these affected groups are not getting the support they need.

The Canadian Cancer Society recommends:

• An increase in how long a caregiver can receive financial benefits for compassionate care to 26 weeks from the current six weeks, given the unpredictability of death.
• Establish a caregiver tax benefit that would be paid monthly to help caregivers with the costs related to caring for a loved one with cancer.

http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2010/05/19/cancer-canada-statistics.html

Throughout its history, the Pill has been the center of ongoing controversy about what it means for women to be able to medically control their reproductive health. Whether it is seen as a boon to women’s emancipation by empowering them to control their bodies, or as an instrument of moral decay, the Pill certainly medicalized contraception, leading to, if not sexual revolution, at least a broadening of perceptions about what constitutes women’s health. As pointed out by Andrea Tone, Canada Research Chair in the Social History of Medicine at McGill University, in an interview with the Globe and Mail: “Prior to 1960, it was rare for a woman to talk to a doctor about birth control… But the Pill required a gynecological exam, a consultation and discussion about intimate matters, which led to the wider conversation about women’s health.”

You can read more about the Pill and how it has shaped both women’s health and the broader social and cultural landscape over the past 50 years in the following articles:

The Globe and Mail

CBC News

Calgary Herald

BBC News

Time Magazine

Progress in Quebec:

In Quebec, CBC News reports that the province will begin full funding of in vitro fertilization treatments (IVF) for women, beginning this spring. Until now, Quebec was the only province to give a 50-per-cent tax credit for IVF treatments and will become the first province to provide full funding for IVF through provincial health insurance.

The Ontario provincial government is in the process of reviewing two reports that have recommended that OHIP cover IVF treatments as a way of saving money in long-term health costs. (Read the related excerpt from the report here.)

Challenges in Alberta:

CBC News also reported this week that a shortage of registered midwives is resulting in many women turning to unregistered “birth assistants” as an alternative to the conventional doctor/obstetrician course of care. Currently, Alberta has only 50 licensed midwives in practice (by contrast, there are 500 licensed midwives practicing in Ontario); as a result, only one in ten women seeking midwifery care in the province are able to receive it. Although women unable to obtain midwifery care would receive conventional care through the provincial medical system, many women prefer the type of care that midwives provide., and are going elsewhere to find it. However, seeking this type of care outside of licensed and regulated systems can pose a potential health threat for women who do so.

To address the problem, the province is working toward licensing additional midwives and introducing a Midwifery degree program at Mount Royal University in Calgary. (There are currently no midwifery education programs — a 4-year university degree — in Alberta.)

Midwifery  care is legal and regulated in many provinces and territories; it is not regulated in New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, Yukon Territory, and Nunavut.