Clinical trials can extend life, CancerCare Manitoba is working to catch up – Winnipeg [Video]

Nine years ago, Winnipeg resident Mark Domko, 52 at the time, went for a routine checkup with his family doctor.

“My doctor said that, ‘I’ve noticed something, and I’d like to refer you,’” Domko said.

Domko went for testing and a biopsy at CancerCare Manitoba.

“Then they came back, and the words ‘cancer’ were right there,” he said.

He was diagnosed with prostate cancer. About a month later, he had a prostatectomy, followed by radiation. But two years later, his cancer returned.

That’s when Dr. Jeff Saranchuk, the CancerCare Prostate Centre’s medical director, asked him about participating in a clinical trial for a drug called enzalutamide, which is used to treat prostate cancer in patients who have undergone surgery or hormone therapy.

“There was a new method of treating it … which at the time, otherwise wouldn’t have been available in Manitoba,” Saranchuk said.

Prostate cancer depends on testosterone to …