Chemo Costs

You may be shocked to learn that some people have to pay for their chemotherapy treatments in Canada, but every year thousands of Canadians are left scrambling to pay for their cancer treatments. I was one of them. I learned in 2014 that my chemo drugs weren't covered by the Province, but it was only recently that I learned why. The chemotherapy drug of choice for brain cancer is temozolomide, an oral drug filled at a pharmacy and taken home, and that is where the problem apparently lies. Because you are getting your drugs from a pharmacist and administering it yourself at home and not within the 4 walls of a hospital it is considered a prescription drug and not a treatment.

I don't know why other cancer patients are taking oral chemo, but I do know that in the case of brain cancer, oral chemotherapy is really our only option in hopes of extending our lives. The brain is designed to keep out foreign invaders and so most things don't break the blood-brain barrier,  it also keeps out chemotherapies. All accept oral agents, and that's if you are even compatible with the drugs. This isn't a cancer to be won, just one we hope to stave off as long as we can to buy us as much time as we can. It's not fair that the leukemia patient walks into the hospital to receive treatment, goes home and doesn't worry about paying for that, but a brain cancer patient may have to decide to forgo treatment entirely. 

Well excuse me that my brain tumour won't suck up a delicious intravenous concoction that won't break my bank, but it won't. There are many people who can't afford $10,000+/month for chemo, and wouldn't pay it even if they could knowing they're going to die anyway. Not that I want to take chemotherapy and I never want anyone to ever have to, but it should be accessible to everyone that needs it. Chemotherapy for one, chemotherapy for all.  

~Tara