Your Name & Address

Date

The Honourable Carolyn Bertram, M.L.A., Minister of Health and Wellness
Department of Health and Wellness
PO Box 2000
105 Rochford Street, 4th Floor
Charlottetown, PE

C1A 7N8

Dear Minister:

As a resident of Prince Edward Island,I am writing to you about the urgent need for patients in Prince Edward Island to access all available therapies for the treatment of advanced kidney cancer, both first-lineand second-line options.

Insert a brief paragraph outlining your personal story (as a patient, caregiver, relative or friend) and the link you have to kidney cancer. Try to mention the importance medications have played in your experience, or may play in the future for you.

By way of background, Renal Cell Carcinoma (more commonly known as Kidney Cancer) is a rare cancer that affects approximately 4,600 Canadians per year. Until recently, there were no effective treatments whatsoever. Traditional chemotherapy and radiation simply do not work for kidney cancer. In the past, kidney cancer was extremely difficult to treat and patients with metastatic disease rarely lived beyond the first year.However, since 2006, new targeted therapies have been proven to significantly extend overall survival for patients with advanced disease.

Through Kidney Cancer Canada, I understand that we have seen tremendous breakthroughs in the treatment of this disease. Specifically, five targeted treatments have been approved by Health Canada - Sutent®, Nexavar®, Torisel®,Afinitor® and most recently Votrient®.

While Prince Edward Island patients have access toSutent®and Nexavar®, they are still missing the critical therapiesof Afinitor® (everolimus) and Torisel® (temsirolimus) in their fight against advanced Renal Cell Carcinoma. Canadian Medical Oncologists have recommended both Torisel® and Afinitor® as effective therapies in their standard of care guidelines.

Further, several Canadian provinces have recognized the importance of both Torisel® (British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland/Labrador) and Afinitor®(British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and, most recently, Newfoundland/Labrador, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick)and allow patient accessthrough their provincial drug programs.

Why should Prince Edward Island’skidney cancer patients be denied access solely on the basis of which province they reside in? Today, there are patients in Prince Edward Island who desperately need funded access to all first and second-line treatments, like Torisel® and Afinitor®, to continue managing their disease. We, as a caring society, can and must assist Prince Edward Island’s kidney cancer patients with all available therapies recommended by their expert oncologists.

The current situation cannot be allowed to continue. Prince Edward Island’s kidney cancer patients currently face serious financial hardship to pay for Torisel®, Afinitor® and other similar therapies, in addition to dealing with the psychological stress of a life-threatening illness. Both Torisel® and Afinitor® are needed in the Prince Edward Island formulary so that ALL Prince Edward Island patients have access to therapy, not just for those who are fortunate enough to have generous private health insurance coverage or independent personal wealth.

Minister, respectfully, I am writing to you requesting your direct assistance and intervention in providing Torisel®, Afinitor®,or other treatments,as a choice to Prince Edward Island’s kidney cancer patients and their health care providers through public funding.

Thank you for your consideration of this request and I look forward to your response.

Yours sincerely,

Your Name

c.:MLA

Kidney Cancer Canada