Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper unveiled plans for a major cancer-fighting initiative. The new initiative includes a five-year, $260-million plan that details three specific goals: The first goal will be cancer prevention, followed by finding new cancer treatments and improving the care of patients, regardless of where they live in Canada.
A non-government agency called the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer "will be a pan-Canadian centre for information on prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer," according to Prime Minister Harper. The non-government agency will also act as a clearing house for state-of-the-art cancer practices.
The agency's strategy is expected to "prevent 1.2 million new cases of cancer and prevent 423,000 cancer deaths over the next 30 years," according to Harper. Jeff Lozon, the CEO of St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto who will chair the new non-governmental agency. Lozon said that he is well aware of the difficulties of getting various levels of government to work towards the same objective, as he stated "this is really a terrible national health challenge and we shouldn't let jurisdiction overwhelm our good judgments."
In fact, Cancer patients in Manitoba are standing by to benefit in specific and measurable ways from the plan announced just this week. Manitoba's cancer-fighting strategy can be synchronized with similar efforts across Canada, and physicians in Manitoba will be able to better learn from others' best practices while sharing some of their own.
"This new plan, announced with great fanfare, still ignores the keys to preventing cancer: nutrition and avoidance of environmental toxins," said Mike Adams, a consumer health advocate and cancer industry critic. "You can't prevent cancer with more drugs, more radiation, more chemotherapy and more screening. You can only prevent cancer through education that teaches people how to life healthier, cancer-free lifestyles," Adams said.
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