|
|
Translating New Disoveries
Into Clinical Practice
Cancer is a serious health threat in Canada and around the globe. One in three people can expect to develop cancer in his or her lifetime. And, due to an aging population, the cancer burden is increasing.
New prevention, treatment, and research strategies are needed to stem the tide, and the BC Cancer Agency is leading the pack in giving cancer a one, two punch. The Agency operates a province-wide cancer control program for the population of B.C. including screening and prevention, treatment and care, and research.
BC Cancer Agency’s Research Centre
|
The BC Cancer Agency is unique in that its four regional treatment centres are linked to two basic science research facilities. In Vancouver, a 231,000 square foot facility is home to nine specialty laboratories, including the world-renowned Terry Fox Laboratory and the Genome Sciences Centre. In Victoria, the research centre houses a tissue tumour repository, an international resource of genetic material, and a databank linking treatment to outcome. This means promising new innovations can be quickly transferred to a clinical setting. And clinicians can work closely with scientists to solve real-world problems.
First in Their Field
British Columbia has an enviable record of applying knowledge and translating it into practice. B.C. was the first province to establish a cervical screening program that has reduced the incidence of cervical cancer by more than 75 percent. B.C. also developed a life-saving bone-marrow transplantation technique for leukemia patients and a new protocol for Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
More recently, the BC Cancer Agency’s Genome Sciences Centre was the first in the world to sequence the coronavirus which causes SARS.
“Being the first in the word to sequence the coronavirus showed us speed does matter,” says Dr. Victor Ling, Vice-President, Discovery, BC Cancer Agency. “We were able to sequence the virus quickly because we have the technology, the people and the knowledge. We can apply these same principles to our core business…cancer research and get the same results.”
Research scientists at the BC Cancer Agency bring in more than $50 million in research funding annually, and are highly successful in competing for grants from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR), the National Cancer Institute of Canada, and the National Institutes of Health in the United States.
Moreover, the Agency has had overwhelming success competing for CIHR proof-of-principal or “pop” grants – those grants given to help an academic institution or researcher move a discovery/invention further down the innovation pipeline into clinical practice.
Dr. Victor Ling, vice-president,
Discovery, BC Cancer Agency,
in front of the BC Cancer Agency’s Research Centre
|
In the previous two rounds of CIHR competitions, researchers received funding for 10 out of 14 project submissions. That is an average of more than 70 percent – well above the national success rate.
“We try not to duplicate other research in the world,” says Dr. Ling. “Our approach is to make use of knowledge from elsewhere and funnel it into our work. One research focus is on pre-cancer and early stage cancer because we believe it will impact patient outcomes in a major way.”
|
|
Dr. Miriam Rosin, senior scientist,
BC Cancer Agency, demonstrates
the VELscope.
|
Improving the Health of Canadians
One such discovery was made by BC Cancer Agency scientists in the early detection and testing of lung cancer. Lung cancer is often a fatal disease, with less than a 15 per cent five-year survival rate. LIFE-lung (LIFE stands for light induced fluorescence endoscope) is roughly three times more sensitive than conventional methods at identifying and locating abnormal tissue.
LIFE-lung consists of a sophisticated camera, computer and video monitor, and a source of blue light. The equipment plugs into a standard bronchoscope, a tiny fiberoptic probe the physician inserts into the lungs by way of the nose or mouth. The blue light activates the natural fluorescence of the tissue. Cancerous tissue shows red, normal shows green. Concealed early cancers are now visible to the physician’s eye. LIFE-lung is now routinely used by the BC Cancer Agency as well as in over 150 medical centres around the world.
Taking a page from the LIFE-lung device, scientists at the BC Cancer Agency’s Oral Cancer Prevention Program are using a technique involving a special dye that turns cancerous or precancerous lesions the colour blue. Researchers discovered that toluidine blue-stained lesions became squamous cell carcinomas more quickly than lesions that did not stain.
The same researchers also developed a hand-held visualization system called a VELscope that produces a blue light that can reveal details of existing cancerous tissue not visible in ordinary light. The blue light directed by the hand-held, portable device helps dentists to define the borders of a cancerous lesion that would be otherwise invisible under white light.
BC Cancer Agency dentist Dr. Michele Williams examines a patient after applying a blue dye to check for abnormal lesions in the patient’s mouth.
|
The findings are among the first steps in designing and implementing an imaging screening program that dentists and oral hygiene professionals can use to make front-line decisions about early stage biopsies and referrals for anti-cancer related care. Oral cancer is often not identified until the later stages, when it is frequently not amenable to successful intervention and favourable outcomes. Among those patients diagnosed with oral cancer, up to 50 per cent die within five years. But when oral cancer is detected early, patients have an 80 per cent chance of survival.
These are just two examples of innovative new technologies developed by BC Cancer Agency scientists aimed at catching cancer during its earliest stages, when it is most treatable. Dr. Ling attributes the success of the BC Cancer Agency’s translational research program to old-fashioned collaboration.
“Our strength is the team approach we use to finding answers – from a 360 degree perspective. It is a real partnership. We have engineers, physicians, molecular biologists, psychologists, mathematicians, genome scientists and many others working together with a single focus in mind: to improve outcomes, and to make an impact on the lives of cancer patients, and those who may be at risk.”
|
