Hello from Dr. Brad Nelson and Introducing the Immunotherapy Clinical Trials Team

Hi everyone,

I’m very pleased to be returning to the BC Cancer Foundation blog for the month of October!

This time around, I wanted to introduce some of my colleagues who will be leading the upcoming immunotherapy clinical trials at the BC Cancer Agency, so you can see how this world-class team of scientists and technicians are coming together to make immunotherapy clinical trials a reality for cancer patients in B.C.

After 12 years of research, our DRC team is joining forces with experts at the BC Cancer Agency’s Genome Sciences Centre and clinical colleagues at the BC Cancer Agency Vancouver Centre to deliver truly personalized immunotherapy to patients across British Columbia through a new Phase I clinical trials program.

When trials launch in 2017, we’ll collect, activate and expand a patient’s own T cells (a type of white blood cell) and infuse large numbers of them back into the patient’s blood stream to eradicate their cancer.

Initial trials will focus on ovarian and cervical cancer and will expand to other cancer types in the future.

Over the next four weeks, you’ll be hearing from members of our team about the important roles they play in advancing new and specialized areas of immunotherapy research and all the work that goes into bringing clinical trials to life.

Thanks for reading,

Brad