Toronto firefighter back on the job after new drug slows ‘incurable brain cancer’

Canadians with some brain tumours that are difficult to treat now have a new treatment option, as Health Canada has approved a new drug.

In December 2020, Steven Stefanidis, a 36-year-old firefighter from Toronto, was responding to a medical call when he blacked out and had a seizure.

After being assessed by first responders, he was taken to the hospital, where an MRI revealed a tumour. It was diagnosed as a Grade 2 IDH-mutant glioma, an incurable form of brain cancer.

It came as a complete shock, Stefanidis recounted to Global News.

“Here I was in my early 30s, living my best life with a dream job when I suddenly had a seizure. I can’t describe what it was like to be told that I had an incurable brain cancer,” he said.

“At first I was in shock and I wasn’t digesting the information because it’s heavy. But overall, the neurosurgeon that I met was very relaxed and confident and I trusted him and he put me in a good situation. I didn’t freak out or anything. I knew I was in good hands at the moment.”

He later underwent surgery to alleviate his symptoms, which took place one week after his diagnosis.

Stefanidis is one of the thousands of Canadians diagnosed with brain and spinal cord cancer every year, according to the Canadian Cancer Society. The type he has, gliomas, is the second-most common cancer among Canadians under 40 and the second-leading cause of cancer-related deaths in this age group.

And IDH-mutant glioma usually arises in people in their 30s and 40s, when they are in the prime of their lives — working and raising families, explained Dr. Mary Jane Lim-Fat, neurologist and neuro-oncologist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.