Health committee  Yes.

Health committee  We have a CyberKnife here in Ottawa. As you said, it's a robotic unit that gives focused beams of radiation to small targets in the body. In fact, that technique has been a major step forward in the treatment of stage one lung cancer in those patients who, for whatever reason, cannot have an operation.

Health committee  Thank you very much for the question. I completely agree with you. It's far better for the patient if we discover early-stage disease. Our cure rates are much higher; there are better outcomes with earlier-stage disease, and it's cheaper. It's cheaper to treat someone when they have early-stage disease and they're cured.

Health committee  Thank you for having me here. My name is Jason Pantarotto. I'm the head of radiation oncology at the University of Ottawa and the Ottawa Hospital. I'm here as an expert in the treatment of lung cancer with radiation. Also, I've been involved in the provincial Cancer Care Ontario system, and I can speak to that in a my role as regional lead for radiotherapy for eastern Ontario in the Champlain LHIN, the local health integrated network of 1.3 million people.