As people diagnosed with cancer have better health outcomes and live longer, the industry has to move its focus to improving their quality of life, said Lisa Machado, founder of the Canadian CML Network, during Benefits Canada’s 2026 Cancer Care Summit.

“It’s been really interesting for me over the last 20 years to see how the conversations with our patients have changed. Initially, we were talking about survival, dying, getting medication access, paying for medication and now, more and more, it’s becoming [about living with cancer and having a good quality of life] because we’re living longer.”

Many cancers that were considered fatal are now shifting to chronic, she noted, so instead of patients only having months left to live, they’re now being told they have 10 years or maybe even a normal life expectancy.

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