December 2, 2005

ONTARIO CANCER RESEARCH NETWORK

The McGuinty government is investing $142 million over four years to create the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research. Part of this investment includes $65.2 million to support ongoing research programs under the Ontario Cancer Research Network (OCRN) — a provincially funded not-for-profit organization that transforms promising laboratory research into new treatments. The network will consolidate its programs within the new Ontario Institute for Cancer Research.

Of the $65.2 million in funding for the OCRN, $21.3 million has been awarded to nine academic and research institutions and two research consortia across Ontario. The institutions are located in Guelph, Hamilton, London, Ottawa, and Toronto.

Awards granted through the network are based on:

• Scientific and technical merit
• Capability of the research team
• Potential of the proposal to lead to an effective cancer intervention.

Projects funded through the Ontario Cancer Research Network include:

CANCER RESEARCH CONSORTIA

The Ontario Cancer Biomarker Network has been awarded $6,000,000.

Biomarkers are molecules that assist in the early diagnosis, prognosis and selection of therapy. The Ontario Cancer Biomarker Network, under the direction of Dr . Eleftherios Diamandis, will foster collaborative development and studies to validate these biomarkers. Research teams consist of 18 clinical oncologists in six centres and associated network laboratories. A core facility is housed in the MaRS building in Toronto.

The Ontario Paediatric Oncology Clinical Trials Research Network has been awarded $990,404.

The network, led by Dr. Alberto Pappo,is a consortium of paediatric hospitals in Ontario, funded by the Ontario Cancer Research Network. This new funding will provide additional human resources to ensure more children have access to new cancer therapies being tested in clinical trials. The network includes: Hospital for Sick Children; McMaster Children’s Hospital; Kingston General Hospital; Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (Ottawa); Children’s Hospital of Western Ontario (London).

TORONTO

University Health Network

Dr. John Dick has been awarded a total of $1,831,386 for two projects.

Dr. Dick will use $1.2 million in funding to develop a novel instrument that will facilitate the isolation and study of rare cancer stem cells in tumours from leukemia patients. There is evidence that these rare cells make the tumour grow and are responsible for its malignancy. Learning more about the abnormal biochemical pathways in these cells will provide better, personalized diagnoses that can be used to deliver the correct therapy. Dr. Dick’s second OCRN project will use $631,386 in funding to test a novel therapy that treats Acute Myeloid Leukemia. Acute Myeloid Leukemia originates from rare leukemic cells that do not respond effectively to chemotherapy.

Dr. Susan Done has been awarded $651,618.

Dr. Done is conducting genetic analysis of cells and tissue samples from patients undergoing mastectomy as a treatment for invasive breast cancer. The overall goal is to determine the usefulness of certain procedures for the diagnosis and management of breast cancer.

Dr. Neil Fleshner has been awarded $641,039.

Dr. Fleshner is examining how to prevent prostate cancer. A condition, prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia (PIN), often appears before the development of prostate cancer. This project is a companion study to a national clinical trial that measures markers in the blood and prostate tissue in men. This may predict the progression from PIN to prostate cancer. The markers can become diagnostic tools to identify those at high risk and allow clinicians to adopt an earlier, more aggressive approach to treatment for those with high risk, as well as less toxic therapies for low risk patients.

Dr. Tak Mak has been awarded $811,661.

Conventional treatment for Hodgkin’s Lymphoma can cause sterility and pulmonary/cardiac disorders. Dr. Tak Mak is developing a way to prevent tumour cells from proliferating uncontrollably. This could result in a new treatment for patients with Hodgkin's Lymphoma who previously had no other treatment options.

Dr. Mark Minden has been awarded $437,520.

Dr. Minden is studying whether combining two chemotherapy drugs, Decitabine and Valproic Acid, will improve cancer care with minimal toxicity.

Dr. Brian O’Sullivan has been awarded $228,235.

Dr. O’Sullivan is treating patients prior to surgery with a new form of radiation therapy that may decrease the healing complications that arise with conventional pre-operative radiation.

Dr. Aaron Schimmer has been awarded $556,909.

Dr. Schimmer is studying how drug-like compounds can reverse resistance in prostate cancer cells, which could lead to the development of compounds to treat prostate cancer and other malignancies.

Dr. Lillian Siu has been awarded $470,342.

Dr. Siu is investigating the safety and tolerability of a new, more effective treatment for nasopharyngeal cancer (a cancer that occurs at the back of the throat) that often recurs or spreads.

Dr. Keith Stewart and Dr. Jaime Claudio have been awarded $540,000.

Multiple myeloma is an incurable cancer affecting approximately 15,000 people each year in North America. Dr. Stewart and Dr. Claudio are identifying genetic markers and molecular targets to develop therapies that can be linked to patient outcomes. They are also examining how current drug treatments, used to treat multiple myeloma, operate at the genetic level.

Dr. Suzanne Trudel has been awarded $481,378.

Dr. Trudel identified a cancer-specific gene in multiple myeloma and is looking at the effectiveness of drugs to block it, so as to move forward with clinical trials.

Dr. Ming Tsao has been awarded $587,880.

Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer-related death in Canada. Dr. Tsao is identifying genetic markers for those patients who would benefit from chemotherapy

Sunnybrook & Women’s College Health Sciences

Dr. Curtis Caldwell has been awarded $326,002.

Dr. Caldwell has developed a technique that automatically links sophisticated medical imaging technologies called Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and Computed Tomography (CT) with radiation therapy devices to more accurately aim the radiation at lung cancer tumours. This is expected to significantly improve radiation therapy.

Dr. David Spaner has been awarded $564,390.

Chemotherapy is not effective against melanoma that has spread. Dr. Spaner is looking at strengthening the body’s immune system and enhancing its ability to kill cancer cells by determining how Picolog, a synthetic agent, can improve the effectiveness of interferon, a cancer drug. The results of this study may lead to a new therapy for metastatic melanoma and other cancers.

Dr. Yee Ung has been awarded $253,800.

The success of lung cancer radiation therapy largely depends upon accurately identifying tumour involvement. Dr. Ung is evaluating the ability of PET and CT scan imaging to determine the precise borders of tumours, so that radiation is directed at small deposits of cancer cells that have migrated away from the primary tumour.

Dr. Shun Wong has been awarded $526,894.

Radiation therapy is given to about 40 per cent of all cancer patients, but can cause serious damage to the central nervous system. Dr. Wong is trying to confirm whether erythropoietin (the hormone that stimulates the production of red blood cells) can cross the blood-brain barrier and enter the central nervous system, thereby protecting both the brain and spinal cord against radiation damage. He is also trying to determine this protective effect’s molecular pathways.

The Hospital for Sick Children

Dr. Chaim Roifman has been awarded $512,179 .

Dr. Roifman is looking at how blood vessels grow and supply blood needed for tumour growth. He has identified new compounds that can inhibit the growth of new blood vessels in tumours and is determining whether they can be used to treat cancer and improve response to chemotherapy.

University of Toronto

Dr. Christine Allen has been awarded $435,449.

Dr. Allen is developing an implant system to treat ovarian cancer and provide controlled release of drugs for a prolonged period of time. This could improve response to chemotherapy with fewer toxic effects and increased survival times.

Dr. Raymond Reilly has been awarded $508,097.

A new treatment for breast cancer has been developed that kills cancer cells without damaging normal cells. Not all patients respond to it and the response is usually short. Dr. Reilly is developing new radioactive drugs to find out how they work, which may lead to the development of new imaging tools.

GUELPH

University of Guelph

Dr. Jim Petrik has been awarded $505,321.

Cancer tumours in the ovary require a blood supply in order to grow. Dr. Petrik is investigating the ability of small proteins called Thrombospondin (TSP-1) to prevent the formation of blood vessels that supply blood to cancer tumours in ovaries. This could lead to the development of powerful therapies to combat or prevent the disease.

HAMILTON

McMaster University

Dr. Jonathan Bramson has been awarded $612,504.

Chemotherapy and radiation therapy often suppress immune responses, thereby reducing a vaccine’s effectiveness. Dr. Bramson is studying the interaction between conventional cancer therapy and gene-based cancer vaccines to determine the best time to use vaccines.

Dr. Jack Gauldie has been awarded $688,285.

Dr. Gauldie has produced a vaccine that stimulates the immune system to attack tumour cells in B cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia, an incurable and slow-growing cancer of the white blood cells. The research team is testing its effectiveness in clinical trials.

Dr. Ranjan Sur has been awarded $589,680.

Dr. Sur is examining the benefit of a combination treatment for advanced lung cancer using a radioactive pellet and a light sensitive drug to reduce the size of the tumour and relieve obstruction in the windpipe.

LONDON

University of Western Ontario

Dr. David Litchfield has been awarded $416,386.

PIN 1 is a recently discovered protein that may play an important role in controlling the cell division of various cancers. Dr. Litchfield is evaluating two new synthetic compounds that halt the activity of a PIN 1 protein to see whether it can be used to stop cancer cell proliferation.

London Health Sciences Centre

Dr. Ann Chambers has been awarded$ 700,594.

Dr. Chambers is looking at how to use a protein called osteopontin (OPN) to predict the course of breast cancer, detect a recurrence or monitor the effectiveness of treatment. Women with breast cancer that have high levels of OPN in their blood and tumour tissue tend to have poor survival rates. OPN could also help in the development of new treatments.

OTTAWA

University of Ottawa

Dr. Lakshmi Krishnan has been awarded $472,873.

Melanoma is a cancer that affects more than 55,000 people in North America annually, and immunotherapy is a promising treatment. Dr. Krishnan is looking at using unique proteins to kill melanoma cancer cells by stimulating the immune system.

For further details of these projects, please visit: http://www.ocrn.ca/research_FundedResearch.htm