cracking the cancer code · cracking the cancer code a dramatic impact on patients supporting the...

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Cracking the Cancer CodeA D r A m At i c i m pA c t o n pAt i e n t s

Supporting the BC Cancer Agency

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The Power of POG: Turning Cancer into a Chronic Disease

The Future of Prostate Cancer Cures Starts Here:

Leslie Laforest says POG, “has given me life”

A new made in B.C. drug, targeted therapies and a genomic approach to prognostics

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A Life-saving Test for Follicular LymphomaNew prognostic test means patients less likely to encounter treatment failure

In honour of his wife cel-ebrating nearly 30 years of being cancer free, philanthropist Gordon Diamond made a gener-ous $1 million gift to the BC Cancer Foundation. This gift helped bring to life the Leslie Diamond Chair in Cancer Survi-vorship.

“I’ve experienced the significance of cancer survivorship as husband to my lovely wife, Leslie, who has been afforded nearly 30 healthy, memo-ry-filled years post breast cancer,” Gordon said. With advancements in early detection, diag-nostics and treatments, nearly 185,000 British Columbians are part of a growing legion of cancer survivors. The Leslie Diamond Chair in Cancer Survivorship aims to further improve survivorship through re-search. Supported with $5 million in funding from the BC Cancer Founda-tion and Simon Fraser University, the partner-ship will mean enhance-ments for B.C.’s cancer

This year, the BC Cancer Agency Re-search Centre celebrat-ed a decade of discov-ery from its labs. Rising from the basement of an old bakery to a state-of-the-art research facility, the Research Centre has become a global pow-erhouse in scientific dis-covery. Within the Research Centre, experts have redefined cancer from a biological standpoint—how it develops, evades treatment, and how it can be treated at the genetic level. This signifi-cant progress is ensuring more patients are cured of their disease today and more cures will be a reality in the decades to come. The past ten years have seen the expansion of people, programs and technology at the Research Centre, which has catapulted the facili-ty onto a global scale. BC Cancer Founda-tion donors have been

instrumental in bringing the world-class research hub to life, while philan-thropy also supported the development of early detection tools critical in reducing the burden of cancer on British Co-lumbians. “The work conducted through the Research Centre is proof of the tenacity and heart of our researchers, who are committed to finding innovations that have changed the way we look at cancer,” said Health Minister Terry Lake. In this special feature from the BC Cancer Foundation, you’ll read about game-chang-ing research initiatives currently underway at the BC Cancer Agency. Thanks to 100,000 donors across the prov-ince, these critical ad-vancements are giving researchers the power to turn cancer into a man-ageable disease in our lifetime.

Celebrating a Decade of Cancer Discovery in B.C.

Improving Survivorship for British Columbians

PA RT N E R S I N D I S C O V E RY

2 BC CANCER FOUNDATION

A DECADE OF DISCOVERY:

To learn more, visit us online at

bccancerfoundation.com/discovery

FACT: There are 185,000 cancer survivors in British Columbia.

BC Cancer Agency Research Centre at 675 West 10th Avenue

survivors, and looks to improve the experience and health of individuals who are entering or tran-sitioning out of cancer care. The Chair, held by Dr. Stuart Peacock, rep-resents a critical shift in cancer research and care as more and more pa-tients survive the disease and require unique fol-

low-up and support to lead healthy lives post treatment. “I am excited and humbled to have the opportunity to lead the new cancer survivor-ship research to foster innovative, world-class research to improve the well-being of cancer survivors and their fam-ilies,” says Dr. Peacock.

Dr. Stuart Peacock

Leslie and Gordon Diamond

LEARN MORE AT: bccancerfoundation.com/survivorship

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C O N TA C T U S

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PAGE 2• Celebrating a Decade of Cancer Discovery in B.C.• Improving Survivorship for British Columbians

PAGE 3• A Brave New Cancer World• The B.C. Effect: Changing the Global Landscape in Breast Cancer

PAGE 4• The Future of Prostate Cancer Care• BC Cancer Agency Researchers Develop New Prognostic Test

for Follicular Lymphoma

PAGE 5• New Hope for Treatment of High-risk Childhood Sarcomas• Clinical Trials Set to Launch, thanks to B.C.’s Conconi Family

PAGE 6• PanGen Ushers in a New Approach to Treating Pancreatic Cancer• Help for Those at Risk of Deadly Hereditary Stomach Cancer

PAGE 7• Precision in a Cancer Diagnosis• Made-in-B.C. Prostate Cancer Drug About to Enter the Clinic

PAGE 8• Clinical Trials a Pinnacle of Excellence in Cancer Care

bccancerfoundation.com

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perhaps requiring long-term management with relatively non-toxic tar-geted therapies.

The BC Cancer Agen-cy’s Personalized Onco-Genomics (POG) Program is the next evo-lution in the standard of care for cancer patients in British Columbia and around the world. Medical history was made when Dr. Marco Mara, Director of the BC Cancer Agency’s Genome Sc iences Centre and Dr. Janessa Laskin, medical oncolo-gist, BC Cancer Agency, joined forces to test the use of genomic sequenc-ing data in the treatment planning for a patient.

Each day, nine women in B.C. will hear the life-altering words, “you have breast cancer.”

Medical Oncologist, Dr. Karen Gelmon de-livers this news regular-ly in her practice treat-ing women at the BC Cancer Agency. Over her career, Dr. Gelmon she has been able to in-creasingly counter that diagnosis with a hopeful

outlook for her patients as the understanding of breast cancer expands and more effective, tar-geted treatments are developed. Yet, for some the di-agnosis is advanced disease or a rare sub-type for which treatment options are limited. This problem has Dr. Gelmon working closely with Dr. Samuel Aparicio, Head of Breast and Molecular Oncology Research, on the Breast Cancer Re-search Initiative with an end goal to personalize breast cancer treatment. Dr. Aparicio’s lab is a global leader in breast cancer breakthroughs, having: identified ten unique sub-types of the disease; decoded the genomic structure of the most deadly of these, triple-negative breast cancer, and; proven that cancer has the ability to evolve over time and in

response to treatments. “Working closely with Dr. Aparicio’s lab, our goal is to examine the biological make-up of thousands of unique breast cancers. By iden-tifying their genomic structure and measuring the person’s immune response to the tumour we will uncover new treatment approach-es for hard to treat breast cancers,” said Dr. Gelmon. “The bottom line is that we want to cure more women and we need answers now to make a difference,” she added.

It worked. And from there the clinical trial POG was born. In recent years genomic scientists have been blowing up the centuries old rationale of diagnosing and treating cancers based on their anatomical origin. POG is re-classifying cancers on an individual basis, focusing on the genomic (DNA, RNA and protein) features that make the disease grow, survive and often evade stan-dard treatments. The everyday reality for Dr. Laskin and her

A Brave New Cancer World

The B.C. Effect: Changing the Global Landscape in Breast Cancer

FACT: 3,200 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in B.C. each year.

R E S E A R C H I S O U R F O U N D AT I O N

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colleagues is that 10,000 British Columbians per year will be diagnosed with metastatic cancer. While some may be treatable for a time, these cancers are incur-able. For patients like Leslie Laforest who enrolled in POG after a cancer re-currence, the study has meant relevant hope, in the form of treat-ment options that are matched to her cancer’s exact make-up. L e s l i e ’s e n t i re genome —both cancer and healthy tissue—was sequenced to create a virtual map detail-ing every aspect of her cancer. Her cancer was then matched to drugs that target the specific attributes driving her disease and the options analyzed by a group of over 60 experts. POG identified two clear druggable path-ways for Leslie who is now taking a targeted

inhibitor in a Phase I trial. “POG has given me life and the ability to believe, for the first time in years, that I can grow to be an old lady,” said Leslie. A sentiment that means a lot when just a few months prior she was facing a bleak, short future.

Dr. Laskin believes that a POG approach will change cancer into a chronic disease state,

BC Cancer Foundation donors power POG through their generous donations

POG is the only clinical study in the world analyzing a patient’s full DNA and RNA as a part of clinical decision making.

Leslie Laforest

Dr. Janessa Laskin

“The bottom line is, we want to cure more women.”

—Dr. Gelmon

The BC Cancer Foundation’s 2015 Hope Couture raised $460,000 for the Breast Cancer Research Initiative to support the purchase of:

• Next-Generation PET/CT Scanner will provide the highest quality imaging available to track patient tumours as the disease changes over time;

• Industrial-Grade Robotics System will match millions of prototype drugs and antibodies to cancer cells obtained from the patient biopsies;

• Cutting-Edge, Automated Microscope System will image the cancer cells as they are treated with prototype drugs, enabling researchers to assess their effectiveness for delivery to patients in the clinic.

These three pieces of equipment will fast-track the studies of Dr. Aparicio and his team and lead to better therapies for breast cancer patients in B.C. and around the world.

Dr. Samuel Aparicio

BCCANCERFOUNDATION.COM

LEARN MORE To read about POG and how you can support this world’s leading cancer research study, visit bccancerfoundation.com/POG.

www.bccancerfoundation.com/POG?utm_source=SunFlyer&utm_medium=PDF&utm_campaign=Website

Subscribe and receive our monthly e-newsletter with the latest news, research developments, donor stories, and ways you can support the BC Cancer Foundation.

Visit bccancerfoundation.com/subscribe to sign up.

STAY INTHE LOOP


Prostate cancer remains the most common cancer amongst Canadi-an men. And while initial treatments for prostate cancer are usually suc-cessful and five-year survival rates are rela-tively good, the disease can progress to lethal metastatic castration-re-sistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) for which drug treatments are ineffec-tive. New treatment

receiving international recognition for his con-tributions to the field. When the BC Cancer Foundation established the first ever peer-re-viewed Clinician Re-searcher Awards in 2014, thanks to a generous pledge of $1.5 million from the Tait family, Dr. Chi received one of two inaugural awards. Over the past year, Dr. Chi and his colleagues have used this funding to launch three new clin-ical trials. Unlike phar-maceutical industry-run trials, each of these ini-tiatives are driven by principal investigators at the BC Cancer Agency, thus resulting in more treatment options for patients treated there. They also began collecting circulating tumour DNA (ct-DNA) from blood samples of mCRPC patients, genetic information which could reveal predictive markers to help oncologists de-

options are needed for men with this aggressive type of the disease. As a medical oncolo-gist and head of the BC Cancer Agency’s Geni-tourinary tumour group, Dr. Kim Chi has spent the last fifteen years ad-vancing the global un-derstanding of prostate cancer. During this time, Dr. Chi has become a leading expert in pros-tate cancer research,

termine which patients will respond to a specific treatment. The initial explorato-ry research into ct-DNA was funded by the BC Cancer Foundation. This year Dr. Chi and his team have been able to lever-age that seed funding into more than $3 million in grants and contracts to expand their work. With so much prog-ress taking place, Dr. Chi is able to see the big picture when it comes to the future. “I expect that in the next 15 years, we will continue to see more patients cured or their cancers turned into a chronic, manageable disease,” he said.

“I expect that in the next 15 years, we will continue to see more patients cured or their cancers turned into a chronic, manageable disease.”

—Dr. Kim ChiDr. Kim Chi

The Future of Prostate Cancer Care

BC Cancer Agency Researchers Develop New Prognostic Test for Follicular Lymphoma

and co-director of the BC Cancer Agency’s Centre for Lymphoid Cancer. Together with PhD candidate and lympho-ma fellow Dr. Robert Kridel and collabora-tors, Dr. Gascoyne has spent the past two years studying the genetic factors that cause treat-ment failure in follicular lymphoma. Now that m7-FLIPI has been developed,

patients at the highest risk of treatment failure can be identified and enrolled into clinical trials investigating novel treatments. Traditional-ly, these patients would receive a standard therapy. In the future, their therapy could consist of a more potent combination of agents, specifically targeted for their unique genetic mu-tations. Dr. Randy Gascoyne

FACT:

Over 1,000 British Columbians will be diagnosed with a form of Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma this year, and approximately 300 of those will have follicular lymphoma.

I’m still here because of cancer research.

The BC Cancer Foundation is the largest funder of cancer research in BC. To learn more or to make a donation, please visit bccancerfoundation.com or call 604.877.6040 (toll free 1.888.906.2873).

I’m still hereto see my kids grow up.


READ MORE: Dr. Kim Chi’s blog posts can be found at bccancerfounda tion.com/blog

failure. Directed by Dr. Oliver Weigert in Munich, the team developed im-proved algorithms and added the mutational status for seven genes known to be significant factors in the develop-ment and progression of follicular lymphoma. While effective treat-ments for follicular lymphoma exist, ap-proximately 20 per cent of patients respond poorly or not at all. “The m7-FLIPI could be ex-tremely significant for the medical community, changing the story for high-risk patients who are currently destined to not respond well to stan-dard treatment,” says Dr. Randy Gascoyne, senior co-author of the paper

BC Cancer Agency re-searchers have devel-oped a prognostic test for a common sub-type of lymphoid cancer, fol-licular lymphoma. Their important findings were released in The Lancet Oncology in August. The two-year study saw BC Cancer Agency researchers collaborate with scientists at the University Hospital of the Ludwig-Maximilians, University Munich and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. To-gether, they developed a new test, known as “m7-FLIPI” and based on the Follicular Lym-phoma International Prognostic Index (FLIPI), to identify follicular lym-phoma patients at the highest risk for treatment

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5

New Hope for Treatment of High-risk Childhood Sarcomas

Clinical Trials Set to Launch, thanks to B.C.’s Conconi Family

A significant discov-ery made by scien-tists at the BC Cancer Agency has brought new hope for the treatment of high-risk childhood sarcomas. Sarcomas are can-cerous tumors of the connective tissues—including bones and muscles—that are more common in children and can be extremely difficult to treat because they have a high tendency to spread. Up until now, there has been very little known about how sarcoma cells spread to other organs. To better understand this process, BC Cancer

ic improvements in the treatment of childhood sarcomas are around the corner. This is a tes-tament to the power of BC Cancer Foundation donors fuelling prom-ising research that will impact families facing a childhood cancer diag-nosis in the future,” said Erik Dierks, Vice Presi-dent of Development at the BC Cancer Founda-tion. The research also showed that when YB-1 drives HIF1α production, sarcoma cells become much more invasive and metastatic. When the process is blocked, it dramatically inhibits

the spread of childhood sarcoma cells to the lungs. “As a parent of a child who died of Rhabdo-myosarcoma, it is really important to know that the work of Dr. Poul So-

rensen and Team Finn is helping to change that story for other Finn’s and families around the world,” said Patrick Sul-livan, who formed the Ride to Conquer Cancer team to honour his late-

son and raise funds in support of life-saving childhood cancer re-search. Read more at: bccancerfoundation.com/childhood-cancer

Agency’s Dr. Poul So-rensen and his team studied a previously unrecognized pathway involving two proteins, YB-1 and HIF1α. The researchers found that YB-1 can di-rectly stimulate the pro-duction of HIF1α when large tumours outgrow their blood supply and become oxygen defi-cient. It allows oxygen deficient tumour cells to adapt to the stress of low oxygen (called hypoxia), making these adapted tumour cells more resis-tant to treatment. “Dr. Sorensen’s land-mark study provides real hope that dramat-

Over the last seven years, the Ride to Conquer Cancer has raised $70 million to support innovative research breakthroughs—like those in childhood cancer—among others, including:

• the creation of new light-based devices aiming to detect oral, cervical, skin, colorectal and lung cancers earlier;

• the development of an “oncopanel” to test for genetic markers that may indicate the best treatments for metastatic colorectal cancer patients;

• the decoding of the genetic make-up of triple negative breast cancer to prove that it is not one uniform subtype, but a complex mixture of cells.

To learn more about the impact of Ride dollars, visit: conquercancer.ca

FACT: There are 12 cases of sarcoma per year in B.C., and approximately 30-40 per cent of patients die of their disease, particularly in high-risk disease.

“This is a testament to the power of BC Cancer Foundation donors fuelling promising research that will impact families facing a childhood cancer diagnosis in the future.”

—Erik Dierks, VP, Development, BC Cancer Foundation

The BC Cancer Foun-dation and Robert L. Conconi Foundation partnered for an excit-ing opportunity that matched donations to-taling an incredible $2 million in support of an innovative new cancer treatment for B.C. pa-tients. Immunotherapy is an approach to cancer treatment that enhanc-es the body’s natural

ago, Robert Conconi believes he owes his life to cancer research and the hard-working scien-tists and clinicians at the BC Cancer Agency. His eldest son Alex was im-mediately drawn to the promise of harnessing the potential of a pa-tient’s immune system to eliminate every remain-ing cancer cell. Together, they decided to support upcoming immunother-apy clinical trials with a $1 million matching gift, in the hope that other British Columbians would join them. Clinical trials will launch in 2017 with a specific form of immu-notherapy, Adoptive T cell Therapy. Patients facing ad-vanced ovarian and cer-vical cancer will be the

potential to eliminate cancer in much the same way it wards off the common cold or flu. After a decade of re-search at the Deeley Re-search Centre, under the leadership of Dr. Brad Nelson, the BC Cancer Agency is now ready to launch an immunothera-py clinical trials program in B.C. After successful cancer treatment years

first to enroll. The goal: to collect, activate and expand the patients’ own tumour-reactive T cells and infuse massive quantities of them back into the bloodstream. Adoptive T cell Therapy will identify every remaining cancer cell in the patient’s body and launch an attack on the cells to destroy them. Once the therapy is complete, the patients’ T cells will recognize the cancer and mount an automatic response if the cancer attempts to return. You can help launch immunotherapy clini-cal trials for a number of cancers by making a gift today online at our website: bccancerfoun dation.com

The Robert L. Conconi Foundation inspired the public to support immunotherapy clinical trials and together $2 million was raised!

Dr. Brad Nelson

Alex Conconi with his father, Robert

DID YOU KNOW?

Immunotherapy enhances the body’s natural potential to eliminate cancer like the common cold or flu.

FOLLOW ALONG:

The October blog series features the entire Immunotherapy Lab team!bccancerfoundation.com/blog



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PanGen Ushers in a New Approach to Treating Pancreatic Cancer

A wealth of recent studies indicates that each individual pa-tient’s cancer has unique genetic features that, if targeted with precision medicine, will lead to improved outcomes. Researchers at the BC Cancer Agency and Pancreas Centre BC have commenced a groundbreaking initia-tive, PanGen (Pancreatic Genomics), to uncover the unique genetic sub-types of pancreatic cancer in order to create precision treatments for each of the 600 British Columbians diagnosed with the disease each year.

By applying ge-nome-based strategies to pancreatic tumours, PanGen aims to offer precision medicine to pancreatic cancer pa-tients. This approach to advanced pancreatic cancer treatment and care has never been ex-plored before. Dr. Dan Renouf and his team will closely monitor patients from the time of diagnosis to genetic sequenc-ing of their tumours, to subsequent treatment, testing and CT scans. By following each patient throughout every step of their cancer journey, experts will be able to:

• Strengthen the methods by which information about cancer is generated; and

• Identify unique pan-creatic cancer sub-

types, each with their own molecular struc-ture and response to treatments.

Working in collabo-ration with colleagues from Princess Marga-

ret Cancer Centre in Toronto, the BC Cancer Agency will commence a clinical trial to genetical-ly sequence the tumours of pancreatic cancer pa-tients as a means to indi-

vidualize treatment. The national collaboration will put Canada at the forefront of treatments for pancreatic cancer in the world.

The Glotman Simpson Cypress Challenge is the largest annual fundraiser for pancreatic cancer across Canada, raising an inspiring $1.6 million over eight years, benefiting the BC Cancer Foundation. The Cypress Challenge continues to provide new hope for those facing a pancreatic cancer diagnosis. To learn more, visit cypresschallenge.com

Pancreatic cancer is mostly lethal; the overall survival is only 6%. Researchers at the BC Cancer Agency are seeking to create precision treatments for each of the unique genetic sub-types of the disease.

Dr. Dan Renouf

Help for Those at Risk of Deadly Hereditary Stomach Cancer Hereditary diffuse gastric cancer is a rare condition that can result in aggressive, early-onset cancers of the stomach and breast across several genera-tions of a family. Moti-vated by her own family’s cancer experience, Sa-mantha Hansford sought to find a way to save others from the disease that claimed the lives of so many close to her. The BC Cancer Agency researcher worked on a study, sup-ported by the BC Cancer Foundation, which pro-vides the first accurate risk estimates for indi-viduals who carry CDH1 mutations through de-tailed analysis of 75 fam-ilies with a strong history of gastric cancer. The life-saving find-ings were published in JAMA Oncology and will be used by genetic counsellors to help fam-ilies around the world determine which cancer risk reducing options are right for them. Hansford, who co-led the study with Pardeep Kaurah of the BC Cancer

Agency and University of British Columbia, joined the Agency after being inspired by the life-sav-ing impact the genetics research team had on her family. BC Cancer Agency pathologist Dr. David Huntsman and his team discovered the cause of the gastric cancers that had claimed the lives of many in Hansford’s family and developed a genetic test to deter-mine who was at risk of developing this disease. This test enabled family members who carry a CDH1 mutation to undergo a surgical pre-vention strategy, which saved the lives of Hans-ford’s mother, grand-mother and uncle. “BC Cancer Founda-tion funding was critical in enabling our research to continue on a path that will have life-sav-ing impacts for families around the world who are affected by this cancer susceptibility gene,” says Dr. Hunts-man. The r isk-analysis study will help to inform

whether or not preventa-tive surgery is a life-sav-ing option for those car-rying mutations within the CDH1 gene.

Dr. Dan Renouf (left) and his

team at the 2015 Cypress Challenge

Samantha Hansford with Dr. David Huntsman

READ MORE:

bccancerfoundation.com/stomach-cancer


www.bccancerfoundation.com/stomach-cancer?utm_source=SunFlyer&utm_medium=PDF&utm_campaign=Websitewww.cypresschallenge.com

7

Made-in-B.C. Prostate Cancer Drug About to Enter the ClinicFifteen years ago Harold Mahood proposed an idea to his Country Meadows Senior Men’s Golf Club that their annual tourna-ment support prostate cancer research. Over 3,000 men will be diagnosed with pros-tate cancer each year in B.C.—a fact that moti-vated Mahood and his friends to improve the odds for men impacted by the disease. The Country Meadows

Senior Men’s Golf Tournament has since raised over $1 million to support the work of BC Cancer Agency Dis-tinguished Scientist Dr. Marianne Sadar who has discovered a method of targeting advanced prostate cancers by blocking the cells’ ability to grow. W h e n M a h o o d passed away his wisdom and foresight ensured the continued success of the projects that

meant so much during his lifetime. Through a legacy gift his estate has further supported Dr. Sadar’s work as she and colleagues screened thousands of com-pounds derived from sea sponges to identify a select few with the most potential in controlling prostate tumour growth. On average, 20 per cent of patients with prostate cancer have recurrence, and to date patients have had no

other successful treat-ment options. After several years of pre-clinical research, one drug, named EPI-506 was identified as the best candidate for clin-ical studies, set to get

underway this year in a Phase I trial at the BC Cancer Agency Vancou-ver Centre. The long-term part-nership between the Country Meadows Senior Men’s Golf Tour-

nament, the BC Cancer Foundation, and Dr. Sadar’s lab has enabled the development of a new treatment that will soon offer hope to men who have failed current hormone therapies.

Country Meadows Senior Men’s Golf Tournament

Precision in a Cancer Diagnosis

Detailed pictures from inside a patient are crucial in today’s cancer care. These pictures, captured through high-tech imaging techniques help oncologists in their precise treatment plan-ning. For most who have been through a cancer diagnosis recently, PET/CT would sound as routine as blood work. Yet, this critical tool is just over 10 years old. In 2005, the BC Cancer Agency installed its first PET/CT scanner, and it formed the hub of the BC Cancer Agen-

cy’s Functional Cancer Imaging (FCI) research program that aims to improve cancer diag-nosis, staging (has the cancer spread beyond the site of origin) and in-turn allow for more precise treatment plan-ning. At the helm of the program, Dr. François Bénard is developing new radiotracers, the compounds designed to seek out cancer cells within the body and make a patient’s cancer glow on a PET scan. “Our team is develop-ing molecules that will

be injected into patients and hone in on cancer cells so we can detect them,” says Dr. Bénard. While diverse in ex-ploring ways to improve detection for all cancers, the FCI program spe-cializes in developing radiotracers for breast and prostate cancer—combined, the diseases impact over 6,500 new patients per year in B.C. One of the radiotrac-ers Dr. Bénard’s team has designed will be able to detect prostate cancers at an early stage and help figure out when the cancer comes back and

where it is coming back, he says. Overall, PET/CT has meant improved staging, determining whether or not a cancer is localized or has spread, and with these precise results on-cologists can plan more personalized treatment

regimens. Thanks to the higher sensitivity, resolution and detail of PET/CT imaging, Dr. Bénard says that thousands of pa-tients have been spared unnecessary radiation therapy. While PET/CT has

become standard of care, it’s a rapidly evolv-ing program that has ad-vanced with the support of BC Cancer Founda-tion donors whose con-tributions have a life-sav-ing impact on patient care.

Dr. François Bénard

PET/CT has led to 80 per cent of lymphoid cancer patients being spared radiation therapy

“Over the 10 year history of our program more than 35,000 patients have benefited from PET/CT scans.”

—Dr. Bénard

DID YOU KNOW?

Dr. Bénard and collaborators helped solve a global shortage in medical isotopes with an effective new production method in the BC Cancer Agency’s cyclotron.

BE PART OF SOMETHING EPIC2 DAYS. 200+ KM.

Funds raised through the Ride to Conquer Cancer presented by Silver Wheaton enable the BC Cancer Foundation to support life-saving cancer research and enhancements to care at the BC Cancer Agency.

Register to ride today at conquercancer.ca



www.conquercancer.ca

I’m still here

I’m still here because of cancer research.The BC Cancer Foundation is the largest funder of cancer research in BC. To learn more or to make a donation, please visit bccancerfoundation.com or call 604.877.6040.

to let her go.


Clinical Trials a Pinnacle of Excellence in Cancer Care

Across the BC Cancer Agency’s six centres, clinical trials are an inte-gral part of the spectrum of care. International data shows that active clinical trials programs improve patient survival outcomes and quality of care. Dr. Bernie Eigl is pro-vincial medical director of clinical trials at the BC Cancer Agency. In his daily practice treating patients, he says clini-cal trials are an ongoing

effort to improve on the best standards of care, especially for those with metastatic cancer when first line therapies are no longer working. He believes that clin-ical trial patients are heroes. Every day patients make an informed choice to enroll in clinical trials. While the hope is that they benefit, Dr. Eigl says that most take part for altruistic reasons, knowing their participa-

tion will help others if better therapies are dis-covered. For Edward London, a patient of Dr. Eigl’s, clini-cal trials has meant hope for his own future. After early success with stan-dard chemotherapy and surgery he was facing an aggressive recurrence of bladder cancer. Edward was a candi-date for a Phase II clini-cal trial with an immuno-therapy drug known as a check-point inhibitor.

Similar drugs have shown incredible success treat-ing cancers such as ad-vanced melanoma. Prior to the trial Edward says, “I could tell I was dying,” yet just months later he could physically feel his tumour disappearing. “Entering this trial was the greatest thing that’s happened in my life. I took a complete 180 turn,” says Edward. He’s back to cycling, mowing the lawn and even travelled to Europe

this summer, activities he never thought possible two years ago. Of Edward’s success, Dr. Eigl said, “This is why we do clinical trials. The most exciting laboratory studies will never help a single person if we don’t prove them in trials.” With funding support from the BC Cancer Foundation, the Agency recently joined a nation-al network called 3CTN that provides infrastruc-ture to expand academic

clinical trials across all six cancer centres. 3CTN is a part of a greater strategy that Dr. Eigl leads to streamline infrastructure and boost the overall capacity of trials for the benefit of all cancer patients. In order to be suc-cessful, patients also have a role to play. Dr. Eigl notes, “I would love it if all patients routinely asked their doctor, ‘are there any clinical trial options for me.’”

DID YOU KNOW?

• Each year approximately 600 patients take part in cancer-related clinical trials at the BC Cancer Agency

• Clinical trials programs translate into better care and outcomes for all patients

Dr. Bernie Eigl


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