LISA PRIEST
From Friday's Globe and Mail Published on Friday, Jan. 19, 2007 4:41AM EST Last updated on Tuesday, Mar. 31, 2009 9:54PM EDT
The Ontario government is to announce today that it has purchased two new machines that will treat those with life-threatening autoimmune disorders -- ending the years-long practice of sending patients south of the border for care.
The photopheresis machines will treat patients with chronic post-transplant graft versus host disease who have failed to benefit from other treatments, in addition to those with advanced, cutaneous T-cell lymphoma that is resistant to treatment, an Ontario government source said last night.
The government provided funding to purchase the new two machines after a recommendation received from the Ontario health technology advisory committee.
"The new machines allow the data to be crunched in a more consistent way," the source said of the $5.1-million funding announcement today. "The [two-year] evaluation will help us determine how best to use the treatment and who will most benefit from it."
During photopheresis, a small portion of white blood cells is collected, treated with medicine that is then activated by brief exposure to ultraviolet light, at which point it is returned to the bloodstream. Photopheresis is done in repeated treatments and it may gradually reduce symptoms over time.
Almost a year-and-a-half ago, Globe and Mail columnist Christie Blatchford revealed how a machine donated to Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto several years ago was going unused while patients were being sent to the United States for the procedure.
At the time, the University Health Network said it did not have the funding to carry out trials or clinical operations. And the government maintained that it would not engage in funding for the machine or the procedure until the University Health Network or Princess Margaret Hospital, one of its member hospitals, offered a proposal.
The donated machine is now being used.
Figures obtained under a freedom of information request revealed that Ontario spent $1.1-million sending patients to the United States for photopheresis in 2004-05 and $471,319 for 2005-06 up to April 20, 2006. It has been sending patients south of the border for that procedure at least since 2001-02.
In all, about 50 patients are expected to require treatment on the machines.
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