Gynecologic Cancer Survivorship in British Columbia
Our Commitment to Gynecologic Cancer Survivorship
The Gynecologic Cancer Initiative provides excellence in research, advocacy and leadership by preventing, detecting, treating and helping gynecologic cancer patients and survivors. Unfortunately, gynecologic cancers have a particularly negative impact on a patient’s quality of life as they not only affect their psychological and physiologic wellbeing, but can also alter their sexual functioning. As such, practitioners must be aware of the unique consequences of gynecologic cancers and engage patients in relevant conversations to help mitigate them. Despite this need, patients report that healthcare providers rarely, if ever, discuss fertility and sexuality with them. Furthermore, ongoing stigma and embarrassment mean that most survivors suffer in silence and do not obtain accessible and timely interventions for sexual concerns.
However, although reducing mortality rates has been the focal point of any work in the health field, the focus has shifted over the past 2 decades. There is now more research has focused on improving the quality of life in patients, regardless of mortality, especially in the GCI’s work surrounding survivorship.
As part of our commitment to survivorship, we’ve prioritized collaborating with patient partners on various projects through a podcast, blog articles, a survivorship summit, and many other initiatives.
Survivorship Newsletter: June Edition
The June newsletter summarizes the Cancer Survivorship Series, discusses potential outcomes and projects that came from the series, and feedback we received about the sessions. One of the common themes that emerged from the sessions was clear: participants were keen to have ongoing connections and events about this topic and to further develop these contacts and relationships. Check out the newsletter to see how you can get involved.
Survivorship Summit
The Gynecologic Cancer Initiative, in collaboration with the Women’s Health Research Cluster co-hosted a Survivorship Summit to 1) review the current status of what is known and what gaps exist in the science of gynecologic cancer survivorship research and 2) stimulate research and collaboration in British Columbia. This event included patient partners who shared their journey with cancer survivorship and offered important insights on survivorship research in British Colbumbia. stimulate research and collaboration in British Columbia. This event included patient partners who shared their journey with cancer survivorship and offered important insights on survivorship research in British Colbumbia.
Gynecologic Oncology Sharing Hub
The GOSH Podcast is a podcast dedicated to creating an open space for real and evidence based discussions on gynecologic cancers. GOSH stands for the Gynecologic Oncology Sharing Hub (GOSH) and is inspired by a patient partner and cervical cancer survivor, Nicole Keay.
This podcast is co-hosted by Nicole Keay (a patient partner) and Stephanie Lam (GCI Research Coordinator). They will share the stories of gynecologic cancer patients and survivors and hear from researchers and clinicians who are working behind the scenes to improve the lives of patients with gynecologic cancers around the world. stimulate research and collaboration in
Perspectives on Survivorship Series
June was National Cancer Survivors Month! To celebrate, the Gynecologic Cancer Initiative (GCI) created a new series: Perspectives on Cancer Survivorship. The series hoped to amplify the stories of cancer survivors and the efforts of researchers to improve cancer survivorship. With the support of the GCI community, we highlighted the stories of three patient partners (Penelope Hedges, Nicole Keay, and Michelle Lim) and the work of two trainee researchers (Alex Lukey and Bibiana Kemerer). Although every patient’s story is unique and the research is cross-disciplinary, each feature of the Perspectives on Cancer Survivorship series has had a common thread: Survivorship is beyond survival.