Shortly before Dr. Cynthia Chan was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer in 2014, the signs of the disease started to emerge from a cough lasting well over two weeks. As a family physician for much of her adult life, the diagnosis took her by surprise, especially as a never-smoker...
Detecting and treating lung cancer early not only offers the best chance of cure, but decreases the symptoms and burden associated with advanced disease. While there is good scientific evidence to show early detection using low-dose CT scans can decrease lung cancer death rate by as much as 20 percent, additional research remains to be done.
BC Cancer Foundation donors provide crucial support for clinical care and research to improve the outcome of lung cancer patients. For example, through the generous support of donors, we were able to renovate the Endoscopy Suite at the BC Cancer Agency’s Vancouver Centre to install a sophisticated image management system, and acquire the latest endoscopic ultrasound equipment and different...
I grew up in Hong Kong, and came to Canada when I was 17 to do my undergrad and medical school education at the University of Toronto. After graduation, I came to Vancouver to do my residency training in Internal Medicine and Respiratory Medicine at UBC and then post-fellowship training at the Massachusetts General Hospital, in Boston and the National Cancer Center Hospital in Tokyo. I met my...
I am delighted to introduce Dr. Stephen Lam as this month’s guest blogger.
Dr. Lam is the chair of the Provincial Lung Tumour Group, and directs the MDS-Rix Early Lung Cancer Detection and Translational Research Program at the BC Cancer Agency. His research interest is in early detection, chemoprevention and endoscopic therapy of lung cancer.
As part of the GI Cancer outcomes unit, the research we do ensures that new therapies are achieving the benefits in a cost effective manner. We can also use this data to link to our various pathology tumor banks to explore new areas of understanding of the causes of certain cancers in the hopes of developing new therapies and methods of detection.
BC Cancer Foundation donors have been vital in establishing my research lab and the projects that my group currently has underway.
When I was reaching the end of my postdoctoral fellowship and looking for job opportunities as an independent investigator, I didn’t think that coming back to B.C. would be a possibility. Although I had a very novel skill set and research platform, I was...
I started in May of 2014 as a Scientist in the Department of Integrative Oncology at the BC Cancer Agency Research Centre. As opposed to my previous training positions, this role is fully independent, which means it involved setting up my own laboratory with graduate students and other trainees that conduct research under my supervision.
Although it was quite a daunting process to get...
Back when I was a student, Dr. Wan Lam had a new group that was pioneering a cutting-edge technology to enable the first comprehensive assessment of the genetic alterations that drive cancer development. Soon, I was spending my nights and weekends at the lab and after finishing my undergraduate degree, I started my PhD with Wan as my supervisor.
Hi, my name is Will Lockwood and I am a scientist at the BC Cancer Agency. My path to a career in cancer research has been more straightforward than most, but was aided by the mentorship and support of many people.
I am a B.C. boy through and through, born and raised in Kamloops. As with most kids, school—science in particular—was the last thing on my mind; hockey and lacrosse were my...
Shortly before Dr. Cynthia Chan was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer in 2014, the signs of the disease started to emerge from a cough lasting well over two weeks. As a family physician for much of her adult life, the diagnosis took her by surprise, especially as a never-smoker... 