BC Cancer Blog

Thank you to Dr. Benard for his inspiring blog posts over the holiday season. We are fortunate to have such strong leadership here at BC Cancer, committed to elevating cancer research to new heights. I am pleased to welcome to our blog Dr. Joseph Connors, medical oncologist and chair of the BC Cancer provincial lymphoma tumour group for January. Dr. Connors recently spearheaded an international clinical trial which has pointed to a promising new treatment for Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He will share the results of the trial and describe the ways in which lymphoma research and care has transformed...

There is much to look forward to with regard to cancer research and care here in British Columbia. My primary hope would be to improve our ability to provide the right treatments to patients much earlier than we are able to now. For the most part, we still give a one-size-fits-all approach to large cohorts of patients, depending on the type of tumour they have. There is a need to improve our ability to determine who will respond to these types of treatment and who won’t, before we deliver it. That way, we can choose a better course of treatment for that individual’s specific cancer type. This...

We are very fortunate to have so many key visionaries at BC Cancer, who think big and outside the box as we work to solve the complex issue of this disease. As a result, our knowledge of cancer continues to grow, in turn boosting our ability to better prevent, detect and treat it. One of the biggest trends over the past year has been our focus on building the infrastructure to expand our understanding of single cell genomics. Through this we are able to look at the DNA sequences of a patient's individual cancer cells and isolate them to better understand the prevalence of these cells and what...

Hello, My name is Dr. François Bénard, and I’m the Vice President of research at BC Cancer. It’s a pleasure to return as guest blogger for the BC Cancer Foundation as we wrap up 2017. A number of achievements have been made to move the needle this past year and I’m excited to discuss them with you this month. First – a little about me. In my role as Vice President of research, I oversee the strategic direction of research and plan how we use our resources to improve our research output, as well as how we expand and consolidate our team and recruit new talent. Our goal is to make sure we...

Thank you to our November guest blogger Dr. Kader for discussing the impact of Jingle Mingle in advancing research and enhancing care at the BC Cancer Vancouver Island Centre. We are pleased to welcome back to our blog Dr. François Bénard, vice-president of research at BC Cancer, for the month of December. Dr. Bénard’s most recent work in the production of rare isotopes for cancer therapy secured a $3.95 million grant from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, leveraged by BC Cancer Foundation donors. In his role as vice-president of research, Dr. Bénard has worked to improve clinical...

Philanthropy is essential as we continue our endeavours to discover innovative and more effective ways to combat cancer. Much of this is done in increments, rather than in big breakthroughs. With each project that we initiate, we are helping to solve part of a puzzle. And with each puzzle resolved, we add another building block to our understanding of this disease and to our ability to combat it more effectively. Many of the advances cancer patients are benefiting from today have been achieved from, and are based on results of, multi-center and multinational clinical trials, as well as small...

As regional medical director of the BC Cancer Vancouver Island Centre, I am very eager and motivated to create and maintain a nurturing environment for everyone at this center who desires to engage in knowledge generation, and for those whose mission is to advance research in all its stages and forms. I believe it is critically important that we maintain and grow the necessary infrastructure and the capacity to support every potential research project for the good of our patients and the benefit of future generations. These pursuits range from laboratory to clinical research, and from...

Hello, My name is Sam Kader and I’m excited to be blogging for the BC Cancer Foundation leading up to Jingle Mingle on November 30, proceeds from which will help advance research and enhance care at the BC Cancer, Vancouver Island Centre. My father was a high school biology teacher. He instilled in me a strong interest in science. When I was growing up, and was quite young then, perhaps about 12, I accidentally came across some of his textbooks and that got me interested in pursuing the field. That led me to medical school in Cairo, and years later, into internal medicine and oncology in...

We are grateful to Dr. Stephen Chia for sharing with us the exciting developments in breast cancer research taking place at BC Cancer as part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. It is inspiring to know that much of this life-saving work is possible thanks to the generosity of our donors. We are pleased to welcome to our blog Dr. Sam Kader, radiation oncologist and regional medical director at the BC Cancer Vancouver Island Centre, for the month of November. Dr. Kader oversees all facets of cancer research and care at the centre and will discuss how funds from this year's Jingle Mingle will help...

As I touched on last week, the importance of the BC Cancer Foundation and its donors cannot be overstated when it comes to fuelling new and more effective treatments for breast cancer. In large part because of this, I expect to see a significant shift in the way we diagnose, treat and manage patients facing this disease in British Columbia. Over the next ten years, I hope to see us begin using blood samples to profile a tumour. This will be significant as we can use this to identify where a patient’s cancer-causing gene abnormality is located and in which pathway, and then prescribe drugs to...