Supporting the CCTG breast disease site committees Resides in Toronto, Ontario | CCTG Patient Representative since 2024“As patients are the ones who sign up and benefit from cancer clinical trials, it is important that real life experience is integrated into the research creation and implementation. I also want to make sure that the caregivers are taken into consideration as well.”Ruth was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1999, undergoing surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, it was later that doctors described her breast cancer as triple negative. She developed sarcoma in 2016 and successfully underwent treatment.At the beginning of her cancer journey, she was visited by an energetic breast cancer survivor who gave her hope at a time when she did not feel very hopeful, she then vowed to help patients in a similar capacity. Ruth became a peer support volunteer for the Canadian Cancer Society, talking on the phone and visiting with newly diagnosed breast cancer patients and witnessed the many advances in treatment because of clinical research. As a pharmacist she has always been interest in research and now patient advocacy as a patient partner board member of the Canadian Cancer Research Alliance for 6 years. She led the research grant that was adjudicated solely by patients: Canada's First Experience With a Patient-Adjudicated Cancer Research Grant Competition: A Case Study"Clinical trials can provide access to medications and treatment modalities that are cutting-edge, and patients in clinical trials may be followed more closely than they would with regular care."
