Some B.C. cancer patients struggle to access needed medication

In his 60s, Phil Harbridge is no stranger to a healthy lifestyle.

But 2019, his breath started feeling shorter and shorter, and something as familiar as putting on his shoes to head out for a run became more painful.

“Sometimes I don’t get it tight enough, just because I can’t manage the bending forward too much, so I might have to redo it when I’m out on the run,” he told CityNews.

It wasn’t just getting older, or running too much. Harbridge was diagnosed with multiple myeloma — a type of blood cancer that develops in the bone marrow.

“I actually thought he was talking to somebody else. I couldn’t believe it,” Harbridge said.

“I’ve heard of people getting a diagnosis and getting freaked out, but … ‘You’re not talking to me. This can’t be for me.’ I felt upset. ‘What can we do?’ I appreciated him saying very quickly that it’s a ‘treatable’ cancer,” he added.

Medicine has since helped bring Harbridge’s cancer into remission.

But after years of networking and advocating with other cancer patients and experts, he says he has learned that B.C.’s list of cancer treatment drugs is more limited than other places, and that makes it tougher to manage his incurable cancer.

“Because myeloma is a continuous cycle of remission and relapse, remission and relapse, after a relapse you need to have the greatest number of options to try. And it’s not just a one size fits all, do this drug, and when you relapse again, it’s this drug,” he explained.

In a statement, the Ministry of Health shared that nine drugs are currently funded by the BC Cancer Agency to treat multiple myeloma and four more are currently moving through the federal review process.

“It’s sort of insult to injury in a sense. You’ve got this diagnosis, you need this treatment, but either you can’t get it, and if you can get it, sometimes you can’t afford it,” Harbridge said.

“I don’t know why that needs to be the case, I don’t think that needs to be. I think if somebody that is a health minister wants to make their mark – make these things available.”

As for other kinds of cancer, 97 per cent of patients are starting radiation therapy within six weeks of referral, the Ministry says. As of November last year, 900 patients were awaiting surgery, the province’s surgery waitlist website shows.

To address wait times, in 2023, the provincial government announced temporary care for breast and prostate cancer at clinics in Bellingham while new BC Cancer facilities are under construction.

A cancer centre in Surrey broke ground in late 2023, and there’s another centre waiting to be built in Burnaby. But the wait for care close to home continues, as both facilities won’t be finished until at least 2030.