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Nancy Schepers is a shining example of how research is finding new treatments to put cancer on hold.

Nancy Schepers was en route to a wedding in Windsor in 2012 when her doctor called. What he said made her come straight back to Ottawa, to The Ottawa Hospital.

Her blood work that morning made his call urgent.

“He told me that I had chronic myeloid leukemia and there was a bed waiting for me at the General Campus,” said Schepers, the City of Ottawa’s Deputy City Manager, Planning and Infrastructure. “I asked if I could come after the wedding and he said ‘No,’ so my husband turned the car around and we came back to Ottawa.”

Her hematologist, Dr. Isabelle Bence-Bruckler, said Schepers was a candidate for a new drug called Tasigna that was designed to combat her form of leukemia.

If Schepers had been diagnosed a few years earlier, this drug would not have existed. But, five years earlier, the type of cancer she had might not even have been identified. Thanks to cancer research, she was properly diagnosed and is now receiving treatment – without chemo. More importantly, Schepers’ leukemia is held at bay by a pill.

Schepers takes Tasigna twice a day: first thing in the morning and before dinner. It’s only a small change to her daily routine, but her cancer has gone completely into remission with very few side effects. In fact, Schepers feels so well with this drug treatment that she has missed only a day or two of work. She hasn’t lost her hair. The biggest side effect is a skin rash.

“My cancer is certainly not a death sentence,” she said. “It is treatable at this point. Research made that possible because they are finding solutions at the cellular level.”

Schepers is a shining example of how research is finding new treatments to put cancer on hold.  The Ottawa Hospital was one of a number of hospitals internationally that tested the efficacy of Tasigna, which is helping people like Schepers keep their chronic myeloid leukemia at bay.

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