{"id":93007,"date":"2025-02-18T15:59:53","date_gmt":"2025-02-18T20:59:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/?p=93007"},"modified":"2025-03-07T13:42:36","modified_gmt":"2025-03-07T18:42:36","slug":"by-thinking-differently-this-research-team-is-improving-the-lives-of-people-with-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/healthy-tomorrows\/by-thinking-differently-this-research-team-is-improving-the-lives-of-people-with-cancer\/","title":{"rendered":"By thinking differently, this research team is improving the lives of people with cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Four years after beginning her trial, Beth Ciavaglia juggles a busy schedule as a mother of two, the executive director of a local charity and a patient advocate in cancer research.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clinical trials are a cornerstone of improving health care for people with cancer. A clinical trial is a research study where patients volunteer to test treatments, such as medications and medical procedures, so researchers can learn how effective they are in treating illnesses and improving quality of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While most cancer clinical trials focus on evaluating new treatments, a team of researchers at The Ottawa Hospital is taking a very different approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The REthinking Clinical Trials (REaCT) program focuses on comparing existing standard treatments to find out which ones are best for patients with cancer. This means that findings from REaCT trials can help a wide range of patients almost immediately \u2014 and not years down the line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another thing that sets REaCT apart: It\u2019s truly patient-centred. REaCT partners with patients and their loved ones every step of the way, from coming up with ideas to designing studies to sharing results. And unlike traditional trials, which are highly selective in the patients who can join and very expensive to run, REaCT trials are pragmatic and low-cost, which means they include a wide variety of patients, who do not require additional visits outside of their routine care. The more patients who enroll, the more that can be learned, which leads to better treatments and practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur goal is to do trials that matter to patients,\u201d says Dr. Mark Clemons, Scientist, Medical Oncologist and one of the founders of REaCT. \u201cPatients tell us what\u2019s wrong, and we design a trial to answer those questions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since launching in 2014, REaCT has become the world\u2019s largest pragmatic cancer clinical trials program, with more than 5,000 patients enrolled in trials at health-care centres across Canada. REaCT has influenced medical practice both in Canada and internationally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beth Ciavaglia is one of REaCT\u2019s biggest patient champions and just wrapped up a trial that may someday change the lives of people with breast cancer around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dr.
Dr. Mark Clemons\u2019 keen sense of humour and sharp wit have earned him an enduring and respected reputation amongst cancer patients at our hospital.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Life after treatment: Beth\u2019s story<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Beth was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer just two weeks shy of her 40th<\/sup> birthday. After finishing her chemotherapy under the care of Dr. Clemons, Beth joined a REaCT trial focused on a drug called zoledronate, which reduces the risk of breast cancer coming back. The standard protocol is for patients to receive one dose every six months over three years, but Beth would receive just a single, one-time dose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With this world-first trial, researchers wanted to find out if the one dose was just as effective as the usual seven. This is because although cancer drugs can be very effective, they can also lead to debilitating side effects that significantly reduce quality of life, such as aches, pains and flu-like symptoms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are excellent drugs out on the market, but the standard dosage is always based on the maximum that the patient can tolerate,\u201d explains Dr. Marie-France Savard, Clinician Investigator with REaCT and Medical Oncologist at The Ottawa Hospital. \u201cFor some of these drugs, we know that a lower dose can do the same thing but with less toxicity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This resonated with Beth. \u201cAt my request, I had actually ended my chemotherapy one round early. I had gotten to a point where it was just too much,\u201d she recalls. \u201cDr. Clemons supported my decision to stop. And despite deviating from the standard treatment, surgery later found that I had no cancer left at all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though Beth experienced the standard side effects of zoledronate, she is grateful she only had to take the one dose. \u201cI don\u2019t know that I would have been able to complete all seven,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the trial suggests<\/a> that a single dose is all that patients need. \u201cThe results were absolutely the same, except with less toxicity,\u201d reports Dr. Clemons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four years after starting the trial, Beth has had no recurrence of her cancer and no long-term side effects from her zoledronate treatment. She just finished her final check-in with the REaCT team this fall. \u201cI\u2019m officially done!\u201d announces Beth with joy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beth is now a patient research partner with the Terry Fox Research Institute and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, providing feedback to researchers on what\u2019s important to patients. At the top of that list is quality of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI feel that there is this societal sense that after you\u2019re done treatment, you\u2019re good. But there is this fallout from treatment that we have to live with for the rest of our lives,\u201d explains the mother of two. \u201cYou want that life after to be as close as possible to what it was before. And that\u2019s why REaCT is so important.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dr.
Dr. Marie-France Savard joined REaCT in 2019. Her main research passion is reducing the toxic effects of treatment for patients with breast cancer to help them enjoy a better quality of life.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The medical community is reacting<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

REaCT is showing the world a lot about how to improve the lives of patients with cancer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another REaCT breast cancer study has changed the standard of care for breast cancer patients worldwide<\/a>. Focused on a drug called filgrastim, which is commonly used to prevent infections, the trial found that five doses are just as good as the usual seven to ten.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And because these drugs are often very expensive, REaCT has shown that by optimizing dosing, the health-care system can reap substantial savings in drug acquisition costs, blood tests and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking to the future, Dr. Clemons and his team plan to expand the portfolio of cancers treated under the program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur data is out there, and the world knows about it. But what we do not want to do is become complacent and sit on our laurels,\u201d says Dr. Clemons. \u201cWe must continue doing research that improves the outcomes of our patients so that they can live the lives they want to live.\u201d

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a deeper dive into how REaCT does clinical trials differently, and to learn about active trials, please visit REaCT\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Taking a different approach to clinical trials, the REthinking Clinical Trials (REaCT) program aims to answer some of the most important and practical questions that affect both patients with cancer and our health-care system. Find out what sets REaCT apart and makes the program so special to participants like Beth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":93017,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[13,281,92],"class_list":["post-93007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-healthy-tomorrows","tag-cancer","tag-clinical-trials","tag-research"],"acf":[],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}