In 2011, when a CT scan showed that Yaron Panov’s rare abdominal sarcoma had returned, he was given only months to live.
But thanks to cutting-edge Precision Chemotherapy treatment he received from Baltimore and Israel, Yaron had years added on to his life. Oncologists grafted pieces of Yaron’s tumor into mice avatars and then tested different chemotherapy drugs, to see which would work best on Yaron’s genetically unique Liposarcoma cancer cells. Yaron, his wife, children and family physician Dr. Sharla Lichtman, became passionate advocates to bring this new chemotherapy treatment to Canada, to benefit more people with rare and difficult to treat cancers.
A fundraising initiative that ended in October 2015 raised $1,000,000 from 650 donors to help Sinai Health System’s Christopher Sharp Cancer Centre join an international study that will prove the value of this highly personalized chemotherapy approach for soft tissue sarcoma patients. With one of the largest sarcoma patient populations in the country, Mount Sinai Hospital is the only Canadian contributor to this crucial study.