Health

TORONTO — Gord Downie's openness about his diagnosis with terminal brain cancer will leave a lasting legacy that makes him "a Terry Fox in the modern day," says a radiation oncologist who treated the late Tragically Hip frontman.

VANCOUVER — The University of British Columbia is on mission to train future doctors, dentists and other health-care providers to treat Indigenous patients by learning about the pain inflicted by past Canadian policies.

BOSTON — Attorneys are preparing to make their closing arguments in the case of a Massachusetts pharmacist charged with second-degree murder in a deadly meningitis outbreak.

EDMONTON — Canada's health ministers are looking at ways of working together, including an electronic prescription database, to fight the growing crisis in opioid addictions.

TORONTO — Ontario should raise taxes on cigarettes, ban anyone under 21 from buying them and impose a levy on tobacco companies, a government-commissioned report is recommending.

CALGARY — More than 400 elective surgeries and exams are being cancelled at Rockyview General Hospital in Calgary because of the need for an urgent equipment repair and upgrade.

TRENTON, N.J. — U.S. regulators on Wednesday approved a second gene therapy for a blood cancer, a one-time, custom-made treatment for aggressive lymphoma in adults. The Food and Drug Administration allowed sales of the treatment from Kite Pharma.

EDMONTON — The health implications of legalized cannabis and ways to combat Canada's rising opioid problem are on the agenda when health ministers meet this week in the Alberta capital.

Edmonton and Lethbridge are the first cities in Alberta to get Health Canada approval to offer safe injection sites for opioid drugs.

SAN DIEGO — Doctors were just guessing a decade ago when they gave Alison Cairnes' husband a new drug they hoped would shrink his lung tumors. Now she takes it, but the choice was no guesswork.