Photo: .ADRIAN LAM, TIMES COLONIST

Dr. Trevor Cohen and Dr. Mona Mazgani, gynecological oncologists at Victoria General Hospital, with a SPY-PHI, a portable handheld imaging device.

A second fully equipped operating room to meet demand for more surgeries for gynecological cancers is in the planning stages at Victoria General Hospital.

Rates of gynecological cancer have increased by almost 50 per cent over the past decade, said B.C. Premier David Eby last summer as he announced $270 million over three years for the expansion of gynecological oncology surgical services across B.C.

The funding included another gynecologic oncologist surgeon, additional staff, and more operating-room hours for Victoria General Hospital, as part the province’s 10-year Cancer Action Plan.

Now they need to equip a second surgical suite at the hospital.

“We need to double our resources — each operating room must be fully equipped with its own set of instruments and advanced technology,” said gynecologic oncologist Dr. Mona Mazgani.

Mazgani was born in Iran and moved with her Bahá?í family to the Netherlands before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

She said one teaching from her faith is about how men and women, like two wings of a bird, need to be equally strong to achieve “the heights it was ­destined to get to.”

“For me, that was a turning point that I wanted to do something with women, and for women,” Mazgani said.

She completed her residency in the Netherlands, then had a two-year fellowship in gynecologic oncology at the University of B.C.

She was working in Vancouver when she was told Vancouver Island did not have a surgical gynecologic oncology program and that she should start one.

Fifteen years ago, she and her parents, husband and three children — now 17, 18, and 20 — made the move.

The Victoria Hospitals Foundation helped to fund the ­initial specialized equipment she needed.

All was well until a “crisis” in cancer treatment wait times a few years ago. Oncologist surgeons across the province rang alarm bells and the province eventually responded with funding and a new plan.

“If we want to meet this growing demand, then we need to expand,” Mazgani said.

Gynecologic cancers — cancers of the female reproductive system — include cervical, ovarian, endometrial, vaginal, uterine cervix, vulvar, gynecological sarcoma, Fallopian tube and gestational trophoblastic neoplasia.

In recent years, cervical cancer has been the most rapidly increasing cancer among females, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada.

Mazgani is also seeing a lot of endometrial cancer. She said 70 per cent of ovarian cancers are coming to oncologists, sometimes via the ER, at an advance stage of disease.

Caught and treated early, many gynecologic cancers are “very curable,” Mazgani said. But in the latter stages they can prove “very deadly.”

There has been a concerted effort by gynecologic oncologists in recent months to pick up extra operating room time to shrink wait times to about six weeks from 12 in some cases, said Mazgani, though wait times are still longer than recommended benchmarks in some cases.

Mazgani said among the top instruments needed is a SPY-PHI, a portable handheld imaging device. This “powerful tool” allows physicians to visually trace, using a dye injected into the patient, the first lymph node to which cancer may spread, for example.

The precision of the probe reduces the need for open surgery, minimizes complications and preserves more healthy tissue.

“It is good for prognosis, good for diagnosis and it’s good for treatment,” Mazgani said. “We say it’s as close to a crystal ball as we can get right now.”

The gynaecology oncology department has just received one SPY-PHI probe through the first phase of the Victoria Hospitals Foundation campaign It’s Time For Surgical Innovation.

The campaign has so far raised $14 million toward its $17-million goal for 50 “best-in-class” instruments — many that have never before been available on Vancouver Island — for urology, women’s health, and oncology.

Phase 2 of the fundraiser was scheduled to start in the fall but Victoria Hospitals Foundation CEO Avery Brohman said “an urgent call” from Island Health leadership “sounded the alarm” that gynecological cancers were increasing and treatment wait times were too long.

The foundation acted and has set a goal to raise at least $1 million through its upcoming Miracle Gala on May 24.

“We know that we can cut the wait list down if we have another suite of equipment,” said Brohman, adding the foundation is working in partnership with the Health Ministry and Island Health.

Fourteen new pieces of equipment are needed for the second suite at VGH in addition to some renovations “totalling around $1 million,” she said. Another $1 million is needed for other tools and technology for women’s health.

“The need is so urgent right now, we’re going to fundraise for it immediately,” Brohman said. “We’ve never fundraised for women’s cancers this significantly.”

Getting back to her Bahá?í teachings, Mazgani said humanity can’t soar unless the wings are in balance.

“We have been ignored too long,” she said of women’s health care. “We have been overlooked, under-researched, under-appreciated for too long.

“This has to change, and with the help of everybody, now we have this momentum.”