Alberta mother's cancer treatment rejected amid Trump funding cuts

An Airdrie mother seeking cancer treatment south of the border was denied a clinical trial due to recent Trump funding cuts. 

Brooke Kajdy, 24, feels "devastated" to have been robbed of an opportunity to participate in a potentially life-saving clinical trial, ViPOR, after President Donald Trump made funding cuts to the National Institute of Health (NIH). 

Kajdy suffers from stage four diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), which is a form of blood cancer that spread outside the lymphatic system into organs and into the bone marrow. 

Canada may not be the 51st state, but imagine being profoundly impacted and stand hopelessly on the receiving end of the chaos caused by Trump's decisions made in our neighbouring country, said Kajdy.

"It's really important people realize that even though [Trump] is not running Canada... He is neither the P.M. nor the President (of Canada), (but) his actions and policies are affecting people in our communities," Kajdy said. 

Initially, she was supposed to travel to Maryland in April 2025 to receive a clinical trial. 

While Canadians thought Trump was merely "blowing off smoke and it's not actually going to happen" with his funding cuts, for people like Kajdy, it was a harsh reality. Particularly one that made her chances of securing a better future for her children as a mother seem slimmer. 

"I kind of had that inkling that this is going to happen," she expressed upon hearing of the actions of the Musk-run DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency), 

Kajdy's instincts were accurate and when the news was delivered to her via a phone call, she wasn't taken by surprise. Though she did feel "upset" and "disappointed."

"I wasn't surprised; I just assumed that because I was coming from Canada; we'd be cut first type of thing," she shared. 

Kajdy's care team had submitted a plea to get their trial drugs sent in Canada to her, which was recently approved on March 7. 

"It's a good step in the right direction, but there's a lot of work to do in terms of opening doors to what's out there for cancer research and cancer trials and treatment," she said.  

Her team of oncologists recommended she participate in a non-chemotherapy treatment regimen through the (NIH) because all other treatments she had tried in Canada had failed. 

In fact, her team in U.S. are keen to get Kajdy travel for the clinical trial because she is the perfect candidate for such trials.

"I'm young; relatively healthy," she said. "I've rebounded really quickly and well from treatments that I've had, so that makes me quite a good candidate to participate in these trails." 

Kajdy says it is unfortunate that the opportunity has also been ripped away from her family. 

"I've done quite a few chemotherapies, radiation, immunotherapy, private T-cell therapy... unfortunately, none of them worked for me," she said. 

"My disease is super stubborn, which is unfortunate," Kajdy stated, adding that "now, I'm at a stage where we are looking at trials." 

Researchers at NIH test the combination of these five drugs, ViPOR: venetoclax, ibrutinib, prednisone, obinutuzumab, and lenalidomide.

According to a National Cancer Institute (NCI) press release, "the treatment shrank DLBCL tumours substantially in 26 of 48 (54 per cent) evaluable patients, with 18 (38 per cent) of those patients’ tumours disappearing entirely, known as a complete response."

Moreover, "at two years, 36 per cent of all patients were alive and 34 per cent were free of disease."  

She was diagnosed with the aggressive form of cancer in June 2024 while 20 weeks pregnant with her second child. Kajdy delivered her baby boy at 32 weeks before continuing on with the cancer treatment. 

While Kajdy is grateful that the community is there to provide emotional support, but it needs to go far beyond that. Advocating for change collectively is something she hopes Canadians continue to strive for. 

"It's not always about the monetary donations, it's simply just about sharing our story, reaching out to our government and people to share 'this is what's happening and it needs to change,'" she stated. 

While her two children keep her busy and distracted, Kajdy urges her community to acknowledge it takes a lot of people to make change. "I can't just do it all by myself!" 

On Jan. 21, the Trump administration imposed a freeze on U.S. health agency programs until an appointee chosen by the President could review them. 

Due to the decision, long-standing meetings designed to allocate grant funding to medical research were cancelled; one of which was a cancer research meeting. There was no notice as to when the meetings would reschedule. 

According to an NPR report, the pause on meetings had impacted 16,000 grants application or approximately $1.5 billion in NIH funding.