One of the most difficult things to hear is a cancer diagnosis, but telling someone that news isn’t easy either.
That’s something Dr. David Ryan, a general physician at the Rivercrest Medical Clinic, is well aware of.
“First of all, I think it is important that you know the patient when you are delivering,” he said. “It’s important to have all the information so when you are talking to them, you can give them all the information clearly and accurately. Sometimes we’ll ask them to bring a family member in with them because telling somebody they’ve got cancer of any kind can be frightening.”
Ryan, who has been practicing for about 10 years, came to Canada three years ago from the west of Ireland and said he especially enjoys working in St. Albert. He said it can be very difficult to give someone a cancer diagnosis.
He mentioned one of the first questions a patient often asks is how long they have to live, because many believe once they have that diagnosis their life is over.
Ryan said it’s critical for a doctor to really know their patients in order to make sure they have all the information they need during this time.
“We’re not at the point of saying how long or when, we’re at the point of saying we need to get proactive about getting all the information, starting treatment if we need to, if it’s relevant for that patient,” he said.
“At that time, when we have gathered all that information, then we sit down and say, ‘Here is this particular cancer and it’s associated with this.’ Now we’re giving probabilities and specialists at the (Cross Cancer Institute), these fantastic specialists who we call oncologists, are the kind of professionals in this area who sit down and say, here are the kinds of treatment and this is the outcome with that treatment.”
According to the Canadian Cancer Society, colorectal cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in Canada and the second leading cause of cancer death. An estimated 9,400 deaths were reported in 2017 alone from the disease.
Nearly one in two Canadians are expected to be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime with an estimated 206,200 diagnosed in 2017, excluding non-melanoma skin cancer. The disease is the leading cause of death in Canada with one in four Canadians expected to die from cancer.
In addition to colorectal cancer, lung, breast and prostate cancer were the most common types in Canada in 2017.
With a cancer diagnosis a real reality for Canadians, Ryan said his goal is to make sure his patient is ready for the journey ahead of them.
“You just have to be there with your patient,” he added. “You stand beside them. You say, ‘Look, this is how long we think you may (have),’ but then they hit their next birthday and they say, ‘Gosh, we’ve done better than we thought.’ So it’s not about putting a timeline, I think it’s about standing with the patients. We’re going to work through this.”
