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This story is part of William Osler Health System’s (Osler) Doctors Making a Difference campaign featuring Osler doctors who are going beyond to improve our community’s health.
During his career as a trim carpenter, Anthony Turner was used to working with heavy materials including doors, headers and jambs. Seven years ago, when he began experiencing persistent and unusual lower back pain and was struggling to lift, he knew something wasn’t right. Following a trip to Brampton Civic Hospital’s Emergency Department, where they assessed this and other symptoms he was experiencing, he was referred to oncologist Dr. Philip Kuruvilla, Osler’s Chief of Hematology.
Anthony couldn’t have been in better hands. Dr. Kuruvilla has been working as a specialist in his field for more than 30 years and is among a highly skilled and knowledgeable team of dedicated professionals. Osler’s oncology team are responsible for ensuring patients have access to some of the latest advancements for the treatment of hematological cancers (blood cell and vessels, lymph nodes and bone marrow) close to home.
Following a biopsy, Anthony was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer that forms in plasma cells in the bone marrow.
“Anthony has received multiple treatment regimens over the years, each of which he initially responded to with good results, but the affects of each treatment would only last for so long before he would relapse again,” said Dr. Kuruvilla.
In 2023, Anthony began experiencing a lot of pain, and it was having a significant impact on his ability to live any kind of a normal life. He was quite sick and was in and out of hospital. Thanks to the persistence of Dr. Kuruvilla and his nursing and pharmacy colleagues, Anthony received access to an exciting new type of cancer treatment called bi-specific T-cell engager anti-cancer therapy (BsAbs). Incredibly, Osler is among the first community hospitals in Canada to provide this state-of-the-art anti-cancer therapy for those living with hematological cancer and Anthony was the second patient at Osler to receive it.
“The day we provided this treatment was one of the happiest for me in all my years of medical practice,” said Dr. Kuruvilla, whose team worked for more than three years to bring this specialized treatment to Osler’s patients. “It gives our patients an effective line of treatment that wasn’t readily available to them before.”
Typically only administered in select academic hospitals, the treatment is currently provided at Osler to patients with multiple myeloma who have exhausted all other lines of therapy and treatment. It uses synthetic antibodies to bring immune system T-cells into contact with the cancer, which then activate and help destroy it.
For 61-year-old Anthony, this innovative therapy has been life-changing.
“I feel great. I now walk most mornings at the mall, I can drive and run errands, and cook at home. While I still experience some pain, it’s manageable. It’s helped me get back to normal living and doing the things I love to do.”
For Dr. Kuruvilla, exciting advances in hematological cancer treatments like BsAbs remind him why he decided to pursue a career in the field of hematological cancer.
“As a high school student, I had a summer job in our local hospital transporting blood specimens to the laboratory for processing. Every once in a while, a lab technician would invite me to look at a specimen through the microscope. I remember seeing cases of myeloma in the bone marrow specimens and that really piqued my interest.”
Back then, Dr. Kuruvilla noted that there weren’t a lot of treatments available for patients with multiple myeloma, and few specialists working in the field. But he saw the potential for the field to dramatically expand with basic science and drug development poised to take off around that time.
“One of the most rewarding aspects of my profession today is seeing people I have been treating regain the lives they had to put on pause due to their cancer diagnosis. The whole goal of treatment is to allow them to live their lives free of disease as much as is possible, and for me that’s really gratifying to see.”
“One of the reasons we have been so successful in bringing treatments like BsAbs to Osler is due to how well we work together as a team of physicians, nurses, pharmacists and administrators to achieve what is best for our patients and for our organization. It’s a group effort that makes this all possible.”
With projections showing that the number of cancer cases in the communities served by Osler is expected to double by 2038, and with Osler’s oncology program already experiencing nine per cent growth in the number of new case consultations for systemic treatment (i.e., chemotherapy, immunotherapy) compared to the previous year, the work of the oncology team and cancer care expansion is vital. To address the rapidly growing demand for cancer care services, Osler is currently working on plans for a comprehensive cancer care centre at Brampton Civic Hospital that will bring new and expanded cancer services – including radiation therapy – closer to home.
As for Anthony, he feels very fortunate to be under Dr. Kuruvilla’s care and to have access to this highly specialized treatment in his local hospital.
“Dr. Kuruvilla is wonderful. When I tell him what I am experiencing, he listens to what I am saying, and he responds every time. He’s never given up on me.”
Read about more Osler doctors making a difference.
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