BREAKTHROUGH

In May 1935, a group of concerned citizens met at Hotel Vancouver to discuss a “pressing medical emergency,” — the fact that British Columbia had the worst cancer outcomes in the country. From that conversation, the BC Cancer Foundation was born and three weeks later received its first donation of $50.

The Foundation’s original board featured a lineup of influential British Columbians, including Malkin, Bell-Irving, Hamber, Pattullo, Shrum, VanDusen and Woodward — names that still hold prominence today. But it was the unwavering generosity of donors that truly drove change.

Opening the Door to Life-Saving Care

A $50,000 bequest by an anonymous woman helped transform a Vancouver hospital’s intern residence into B.C.’s first cancer treatment centre in 1938. Between 1948 and 1950, diagnostic clinics opened in Victoria, Penticton, Vernon, Kelowna, Kamloops, Nelson, Trail and Cranbrook.

In 1974, the provincial government took over cancer treatment and the BC Cancer Foundation deepened its focus on fundraising to support cancer research and care in B.C.

By 1985, 21 diagnostic clinics served patients across B.C. but the first regional cancer centre outside of Vancouver didn’t open until 1995 in Surrey. Fuelled by donor support, BC Cancer centres in Kelowna (1998), Victoria (2001), Abbotsford (2008) and Prince George (2012) followed.

 Made in B.C. Breakthroughs

Bolstered by donors, bold steps taken in B.C can now be felt around the globe.

 1949 — The first cytology lab opens in B.C. to detect early-stage cancer of the uterus, becoming an international model in early detection.

1967 — BC Cancer Foundation partially funds TRIUMF, the first lab in Canada to use proton beams on tumours, and now a major hub in nuclear physics, particle physics and medical isotopes.

1999 — BC Cancer’s Dr. Marianne Sadar’s breakthrough in hormone-resistant prostate cancer was celebrated globally — a discovery made possible by a Richmond charity golf tournament.

2001 — BC Cancer’s Dr. David Huntsman led international research showing that prophylactic gastrectomy (stomach removal) may prevent gastric cancer in people with a genetic risk.

2010 — Discovered by BC Cancer’s Dr. Dianne Miller, and now utilized world-wide, opportunistic salpingectomy becomes an effective preventative measure against ovarian cancer.

2012 — BC Cancer’s flagship study in precision medicine is the first in the world to deploy whole genome analysis to inform individual treatment planning.

2017 — Researchers at BC Cancer identify seven new ovarian cancer subtypes, a discovery which is informing novel treatments including options for chemotherapy-resistant disease.

2024 — A drug that could stop the deadly spread of osteosarcoma, the most common bone cancer in children (the disease that claimed the life of Terry Fox), is discovered by BC Cancer scientists.

2025 — BC Cancer launches a new clinical trial for made-in-B.C. immunotherapy for blood cancers, paving the way for expanded treatment access.

Giving Spans Generations

“Work hard, live well and give back,” says Bill McCarthy of the ethos his grandfather John Jambor — a Slovak immigrant who spent his life paying it forward in appreciation of Canada’s opportunities — has instilled in four generations of the McCarthy family.

Since 1970, their support has included an educational fund to empower BC Cancer researchers, a transformational charitable bequest and Bill’s son John McCarthy’s dedicated leadership as the youngest board chair in BC Cancer Foundation history. All with a vision of giving back to the community by bringing cancer care closer to home — a goal they helped realize in 2024 when they invested in the BC Cancer – Burnaby McCarthy Centre.

Hope for Families

“It’s for our daughters, for everyone’s daughters,” says Jill Diamond and Lauri Glotman on their family’s generous investment in BC Cancer’s Hereditary Cancer Program, to arm more women and their families with the knowledge about their increased risk of cancer and the preventative measures they can take, which culminated in the opening of the Diamond Foundation Hereditary Cancer Centre in 2025.

In advancing cancer research in B.C., the Diamond family’s roots run deep — to the very land the L.J. Blackmore Cancer Research Centre stands on as Gordon Diamond gifted the plot to BC Cancer in 1997.

Heroes Among Us

BC Cancer Foundation’s long-running events have seen thousands of dedicated participants challenge themselves to overcome physical obstacles to inspire their communities to give. Beyond fundraising, they’re a celebration of resilience and relentless determination in honour of loved ones lost and friends and family courageously facing cancer.

Over the past 16 unforgettable years of the Tour de Cure, everyone who participated, fundraised, volunteered or cheered on riders contributed to not only raising millions of dollars, but to something even more powerful: hope for a future free from the fear of cancer.

In 2008, a handful of people pedalled 12 km up the mountain in the Capilano Cypress Challenge presented by Glotman•Simpson Cycling. In 2024, 600 riders made the climb for pancreatic cancer.

Since 2017, almost 13,000 participants have exercised for 30 minutes every day in May in the month-long Workout to Conquer Cancer. That’s 11 million minutes of moving for more cures!

Lung Cancer

Long thought of as solely a smoker’s disease, donor investment in BC Cancer research is helping reduce stigma and advance early detection for all high-risk individuals.

Past: In 2010, BC Cancer discovered that lung cancer in non-smokers (which accounts for 30% of cases in B.C.) is a completely different disease, prompting alternate diagnostics and treatments.

Present: In 2022, fuelled by almost $2 million in donor support, B.C. implemented Canada’s first provincial lung cancer screening program for eligible, high-risk individuals (people age 55-74, who have smoked for 20 years). It has since detected 74% of participants’ lung cancers at an earlier, more treatable stage.

Future: BC Cancer’s Breathomics Lab is harnessing artificial intelligence (AI) to develop a novel test which identifies chemical signatures in breath to detect early lung cancer and provide insight into how changes in the lung microbiome may indicate lung cancer development in non-smokers.

After discovering Asian women are more susceptible to lung cancer caused by air pollution, BC Cancer’s Dr. Stephen Lam is pursuing research into how genetics and environment affect risk to uncover new interventions for at-risk patients.

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.

What has kept you in B.C. for over two decades?

BC Cancer is unique, in Canada and in the world, due to our provincial structure which enables collaboration and consistency in care across B.C. As a researcher, this is invaluable as it offers a much wider, population-level of data, from diverse demographics and regions that reflect a range of cancer types, treatment responses and patient outcomes, to help develop more personalized treatments.

And, of course, our work is backed by a donor community like no other. Without BC Cancer Foundation support, we would not be the world-leading cancer organization we are today.

As a leader in prostate cancer research — involved in almost every major drug to treat the disease over the past 20 years — what BC Cancer-led innovations are providing new hope?

We’ve entered an exciting era of precision medicine over the past decade — which has doubled life expectancy for prostate cancer patients in B.C. Donor-supported advancements include:

• Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen (PSMA)-PET, a new imaging technology that is detecting cancer spread earlier than traditional scans.
• Genomic analysis — to identify mutations driving cancer growth to guide improved treatment — is now standard for metastatic prostate cancer.
• A B.C.-pioneered blood test analyzing circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) is providing unprecedented insight into a patient’s cancer and an alternative to invasive tissue biopsies.
• High-dose, precision radiotherapy is reducing radiation sessions from up to eight weeks of daily treatments to just three to five doses, minimizing side effects and increasing complete remission in patients with metastatic cancer.

Cancer cases are on the rise, what keeps you going in the race to stay ahead of this disease?

We are curing more people, and more people are living longer and better with cancer than ever before. This is thanks to research and innovative new treatments — much of it led right here in B.C. While it’s a privilege to be at the helm of our provincial cancer system, I also really appreciate helping patients on an individual level where I get to see our work in action every day.

How has donor-supported research impacted patients over your career?  

Recently, I had to tell a long-time patient that we no longer had any treatment for his cancer and that he had weeks, maybe months to live. But, behind this incredibly difficult conversation is a growing success story. Twenty years ago, when I had first started in oncology, I would have had one treatment to offer him — a chemotherapy that was not very effective. His prognosis would have been grim: one year.

Instead, thanks to research he had five treatments: targeted therapy, more effective chemotherapy immunotherapy, and radioligand therapy, as well as genomic and molecular characterization of his cancer that enabled us to tailor his treatment. As a result, he had seven good years with his family.

What promising new treatments are on the horizon?   

Immunotherapy — harnessing a patient’s own immune system to fight cancer — has revolutionized cancer treatment but there is much more work to be done. Founded fully through donor support, the immunotherapy research program at BC Cancer’s Deeley Research Centre (DRC) was the first in Canada to manufacture CAR T cells, white blood cells genetically engineered in the lab to identify and destroy cancer.

A clinical trial using the made-in-B.C. CAR T cells is showing complete regression in 43% of its participants — leukemia and lymphoma patients who had exhausted all other treatment options. BC Cancer experts are preparing to research the effectiveness of CAR T-cell therapy to treat some of the most challenging cancers, including ovarian and pancreatic.

Can you give an example of when you’ve seen a project go from lab to life-saving treatment?   

I had a patient who benefited from a diagnostic we created right here at BC Cancer – Vancouver, supported by BC Cancer Foundation funds. Instead of a biopsy or surgery to remove tissue for evaluation, we developed a blood test that screens for genomic markers in prostate cancer patients. In this individual, the blood test identified a gene mutation that responds well to immunotherapy.

What’s incredible is this mutation only occurs in about 3% of prostate cancer patients and it’s difficult to find. Thanks to this simple blood test, however, we located it and enrolled him in an immunotherapy clinical trial. He’d already received multiple treatments including surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, and yet his cancer had spread. After immunotherapy he achieved a complete response and four years later, he is free from disease. At just 72 years old, he is now enjoying many more years with his grandson.

Radiation therapy

From the rudimentary use of unprocessed radium to the AI-informed precise beams and internally placed “seeds” of today, donor-supported radiation therapy research is advancing access and care for the more than 50% of all cancer patients in B.C. who require the treatment.

Past: In the 1930s, an anonymous donor helped purchase one of the first grams of rare radium, launching radiotherapy in B.C. While effective in killing cancer cells, early radiation treatments were imprecise and impacted healthy tissue along with the tumour causing unintended damage.

Present: B.C.-led innovation in precision radiation therapy has significantly improved treatment, targeting the tumour within millimetres to reduce harmful side effects and increase access across the province.

In 2009, donors enabled BC Cancer – Kelowna to bring brachytherapy — placing radioactive sources or “seeds” in the tumour to kill cancer cells, limiting toxicity and reducing treatments from weeks to just days — to the Interior. In 2020, fundraising helped recruit B.C.’s first Chair in Brachytherapy, Dr. Juanita Crook, who is leading world-class research in brachytherapy to treat breast cancer.

Future: Donors are putting BC Cancer at the forefront of pioneering research in stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR), a highly focused, high-dose radiation therapy that minimizes side effects and can be delivered in just five treatments — compared to 30-35 traditional radiation sessions. A joint BC Cancer – Victoria and Surrey trial is using AI to further reduce SABR treatments to just two doses.

Since radiation therapy is only available at BC Cancer, as SABR progresses to become standard of care in treating more cancers it will greatly increase capacity at B.C.’s six regional centres. The development of four more BC Cancer centres (Burnaby, Surrey, Kamloops and Nanaimo) will further increase access to the nearly 167,000 radiation sessions B.C. patients require each year.