After decades of living and working in downtown Toronto, Glenn Britton retired from a career in IT and moved to the countryside for a more tranquil life. "I would call the birds just by whistling and they'd land in my hand. But I kept thinking, in a couple of weeks, I won't be able to whistle to them anymore," recalls Glenn.
It was fall 2023 when he first noticed a spot on his left cheek. When treatment from a dermatologist was unable to heal it, a biopsy revealed he had squamous cell carcinoma, a type of skin cancer. The news was frightening, but what came next was devastating. Because of the tumour's size, and the way the tumour had grown, Glenn was told surgery would almost certainly damage his facial nerve, leaving him without movement on one side of his face.
"It was hard for me to come to terms with the idea that half my face would be paralyzed," said Glenn. "I was counting down the days to the surgery, hoping there was another way." Then, he was referred to Dr. Gillian Tsai, a radiation oncologist at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. She asked whether he had considered immunotherapy, a new kind of treatment that trains the body's own immune system to fight cancer cells. Dr. Tsai connected Glenn with Dr. Anna Spreafico, who became his treating physician and offered him a new path forward.
Glenn began receiving immunotherapy once every three weeks to try to shrink the tumour before attempting surgery. The treatment started working almost immediately. The transformation was so dramatic that when he returned to his surgeon, the outlook had completely changed. Where Glenn had once been told there was a 100 percent chance that surgery would damage his facial nerve, he was now told the risk had fallen to less than one percent.
"I'm kind of lucky," said Glenn, "because that drug didn't exist 15 years ago. And here I am, going from a dire outcome to one that's quite great. Immunotherapy just avoided all those complications. I feel so much better, not just physically, but also, mentally."
Glenn is now cancer-free, his only significant side effect is fatigue, which he finds manageable, and he's still able to whistle to the birds he loves so much. Today, Glenn is grateful for the care he received at The Princess Margaret and to have benefitted from an innovative treatment with minimal side effects.
"It really makes you realize all the research that went into making that possible, long before you ever walked through the hospital doors and how important support from donors is. They're making that research possible and pushing it forward. It gives people like me hope when they need it most."
___Glenn Britton
Melanoma Survivor