Finding New Hope Through Clinical Trials By Laura Matwichuk on Jan 13, 2017 As a medical oncologist, I specialize in treating about five cancer types, and the main focus of my current research is in bladder cancer. I’d like to describe a couple of the clinical trials we have been involved in lately. The first is a study comparing new immunotherapy treatments to our current standard of... Continue Reading Bladder Cancer, Chemotherapy, Clinical Trials, Immunotherapy
Building a Better Patient Experience By Ken Donohue on Oct 03, 2016 As most people know the population in the Fraser Health region, in particular Surrey, is steadily growing. This has provided some wonderful opportunities for residents, but also presents a number of significant challenges for health care delivery in the region. This is not a new problem, indeed the rapid growth of the population and the increasing cancer care needs led to the opening of the... Continue Reading BC Cancer - Abbotsford, BC Cancer - Surrey, Chemotherapy
Research leads to better understanding and diagnosis of blood cancers By Dr. Aly Karsan on Mar 30, 2016 Last week I blogged about what led me to study blood cancers and how they come about. This week, I will update you on some our previous work, and the work that is currently being supported by the BC Cancer Foundation. A number of years ago, my lab became very interested in learning about a kind of blood cancer called myelodysplastic syndromes, or MDS. This cancer starts out slowly, but... Continue Reading BC Cancer - Vancouver, Chemotherapy, Genomics, Leukemia
Questions of medicine and science formed half way ‘round the world By Dr. Aly Karsan on Mar 22, 2016 My path to a career in science and medicine was convoluted, but not without direction. I grew up in east Africa on an island in the Indian Ocean. Both my maternal grandparents died at very young ages of undiagnosed conditions. While the setting was idyllic, the reason for my grandparents’ deaths, or rather the lack of a reason bothered me. This great gap in understanding—the causes of... Continue Reading BC Cancer - Vancouver, BC Cancer - Victoria, BC Oral Cancer Prevention Program, Biobanking, Brachytherapy, BrainCare BC, Breast Cancer, Bust a Move, Cancer Control Research, Chemo SmartBook, Chemotherapy, Childhood cancer, Childhood Cancer Research Program, Clinical Trials, Colorectal cancer, Concrete Hero, Deeley Research Centre, Discovery Luncheon, Drug Development, Endometrial Cancer, Esophageal Cancer, Experimental Therapeutics, Functional cancer imaging, Gastrointestinal Cancer, Genomics, Golf Classic In Memory of Sindi Ahluwalia Hawkins, Gynecologic Cancer, Head & Neck Cancer, Inspiration Gala, Jingle Mingle, Leukemia
New Strategies for the Treatment of Pancreatic Cancer By Dr. Daniel Renouf on Apr 15, 2015 In this week’s blog posts, I’d like to discuss some of the exciting developments in new drug therapies for pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic cancer has been one of the most difficult cancers to treat because it is difficult to detect early and is resistant to most chemotherapy drugs. Up until recently, very little progress had been made in finding new, effective therapies for pancreatic... Continue Reading Chemotherapy, Pancreatic Cancer
Dr. Kim Chi: Looking Ahead By Dr. Kim Chi on Jun 25, 2014 I’ve been lucky in my career to be part of research that has resulted in major advances in the treatment of prostate cancer. When I first started as an oncologist, there was only one treatment for advanced, hormone therapy resistant prostate cancer – it was a chemotherapy called mitoxantrone, which although well tolerated, only produced a modest improvement in symptoms with no survival... Continue Reading Chemotherapy, Immunology, Philanthropy and Research, Prostate Cancer
Translational Research and the Latest Prostate Cancer Discoveries By Dr. Kim Chi on Jun 11, 2014 At the BC Cancer Agency I wear a number of hats: first, I’m a medical oncologist which is a sub-specialist in the drug treatment of cancer. I’m further sub-sub-specialized in that I mainly treat patients with genitourinary (GU) cancers (cancers of the prostate, bladder, testis, kidney and adrenal gland). I’m also a researcher and study outcomes, biomarkers, and conduct clinical trials... Continue Reading Chemotherapy, Clinical Trials, Genomics, Medical Oncology, Prostate Cancer
Outcomes Research Improving Treatment and Care By Dr. Hagen Kennecke on Feb 24, 2014 Hello again - We had another important week at the BC Cancer Agency last week, including a province-wide meeting to discuss a new pancreatic cancer initiative. Any doctor in British Columbia will be able to refer complex patients to clinical rounds to get an opinion about the best way to treat the cancer. This takes a lot of cooperation... Continue Reading Chemotherapy, Colorectal cancer, Pancreatic Cancer
Exciting Developments in Cancer Research in B.C. By Dr. Hagen Kennecke on Feb 14, 2014 Hey folks – this has been an exciting week! On Tuesday a group of us conducted a province-wide presentation of the results of a big international cancer conference held in San Francisco, January 16 to 18 this year. Then, on Wednesday, we had the chance to offer some patients with rectal cancer an exciting new study that we are doing in partnership with centres across the U.S. and Canada... Continue Reading Chemotherapy, Colorectal cancer, Lung cancer, Pancreatic Cancer
Hello from Dr. Hagen Kennecke By Dr. Hagen Kennecke on Feb 06, 2014 Hi! I am one of the Medical Oncologists at the BC Cancer Agency Vancouver Centre. When I introduce myself, I tell people that I am a chemotherapy doctor, but that is probably not quite true. Many of the treatments that I give are actually more “targeted” treatments that do not really fit the term chemotherapy anymore. We also call it “systemic therapy”. I was born in Germany and grew up... Continue Reading Chemotherapy, Medical Oncology