90 Years of Discovery and Hope in B.C.: From Dough to DNA — Making Space for Cancer Research in B.C. 

Cancer research in B.C. was being conducted earlier, but it gained a dedicated home in 1972 when the BC Cancer Foundation bought McGavin’s Bakery in Vancouver. Devoted researchers such as Dr. Connie Eaves set up shop in the dusty, former bakery prior to its renovation and opening as the BC Cancer Research Centre in 1979 — when the first patients received treatment in clinical trials.

In 1997, the Foundation launched a $100 million Millennium campaign to support the building of new research centres in Vancouver and Victoria and a genome science centre to be led by Nobel laureate Dr. Michael Smith. One of the first to donate was the Diamond family, through a gift of the property that the L.J. Blackmore Cancer Research Centre in Vancouver (opened in 2005) now stands on.

In 2001, the Daring to Believe campaign raised $6.4 million to create research space in the new BC Cancer – Victoria. In honour of Trev and Joyce Deeley’s commitment to advancing research on the Island, the fully donor-funded building was named the Deeley Research Centre (DRC) in 2003.

A world-leader in immunotherapy research, treatment that harnesses the immune system to attack and destroy cancer, the DRC is home to BC Cancer’s donor-supported Tumour Tissue Repository  — hundreds of thousands of patient samples crucial in enabling BC Cancer’s pioneering research.

The DRC’s Conconi Family Immunotherapy Lab, established through donor support in 2016, is driving innovation in CAR T-cell therapy and was the first in Canada to produce CAR T cells, genetically engineered cancer-fighting copies of a patient’s own immune cells.

In just over a decade, BC Cancer – Prince George has become a globally recognized hub for precision radiation research. And thanks to BC Cancer’s provincial structure, collaborative life-saving clinical trials are currently serving patients at all six regional cancer centres.