Sudbury residents learned this week how the Health Sciences North Research Institute (HSNRI) is making strides in helping cancer patients stay on track with treatment and achieve better outcomes.

A public event at Science North’s Vale Cavern was held on Thursday to raise awareness of the importance of the work carried out by the IRSN, particularly as it relates to cancer care.

Many may not realize the level of cutting-edge cancer research being conducted in Nickel City, nor the fact that local cancer patients can register to participate in clinical trials of treatments in Sudbury.

Amanda Snyder, coordinator of clinical studies on cancer at Horizon Santé-Nord, who works closely with IRSN, is well aware of the importance of cancer research and the extent of research carried out locally.

Through this role, Snyder works with cancer patients participating in clinical trials, helping them throughout their treatment by providing relevant information and support.

Clinical trials, she said, give patients access to cutting-edge treatments currently in development, providing better patient outcomes but also helping to advance cancer research.

“So we currently have 10 open trials. They range from academic studies to radiation trials to experimental drug trials,” Snyder said. “Whether it’s a better outcome in terms of overall survival or overall symptom management, that’s generally what we’re looking to mitigate.”

Snyder added that drug trials or radiation trials that local patients participate in are all carefully reviewed by ethics committees and officially approved by organizations such as Health Canada and the The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

“What patients are getting, you know, are basically cutting-edge treatments … that just haven’t come to market yet,” Snyder said.

As an example, she mentioned a study done in Sudbury for patients who had oral mucositiswhich is a complication of radiotherapy.

Snyder said this disease is one of the unpleasant things that can happen to cancer patients who are undergoing a regimen of chemotherapy and radiation therapy. This can cause a series of mouth ulcers that make it difficult to eat or drink. In many cases, patients must be fed through a G tube (gastrostomy tube).

She said the drug trial allowed staff to provide medications to allow patients to eat and drink and not live in pain for several weeks during chemotherapy and radiation treatments. Snyder said it also made it easier for patients in that most did not need to be hospitalized during their treatment.

In addition, patient participation helps advance research.

“It was sort of a dual aim of the study, and it was really really cool to see how much the drug benefited patients in the long term.”

She said the study’s success also prompted FDA officials to come to Sudbury to monitor the results.

“It worked really, really well,” Snyder said. “This was the first time the FDA came to our site to monitor the study.”

She added that she’s not sure the data the FDA has collected from other hospitals is as positive as what happened in Sudbury, but she said it’s an example of the importance of the work carried out.

Snyder added that HSN anticipates the FDA will return at some point in the future to monitor other studies underway at the hospital.

Snyder said not all patients fully understand the importance of research work or that participating in a clinical trial could benefit them in their cancer treatment. Snyder said that when patients learn they have cancer, they have a lot of information to absorb and that being told about research studies can lead to information overload for people who already have to absorb a lot of information .

Snyder said it is helpful when patients have a lot of family support, particularly if there is a health professional in the family, to help patients understand the potential long-term benefits of their involvement in a clinical trial.

Snyder said she tries to put herself in a patient’s shoes to understand how overwhelming it can be when they are told about the many things they could or should do.

She said one of the main benefits is that when a patient is selected to participate in a clinical trial, their level of care increases. This usually results in direct one-on-one nursing care, Snyder said.

“So we’re with them all the time, getting them to where they need to be so that at no point do they feel overwhelmed or lost, that everything is going pretty well for them in that sense,” Snyder said.

Len Gillis covers health care as well as the mining industry for Sudbury.com.