News

Despite decades of advancement in treatment, cancer spreading to multiple parts of the body remains one of the biggest challenges facing patients and their health care teams.

This is particularly true for osteosarcoma, the most common bone cancer in children and teenagers. While survival rates are approximately 70 per cent for people with localized disease, there is a high risk of metastatic spread to the lungs, after which the odds of survival fall dramatically to 20 per cent or less.

In a new study, a team led by Dr. Dean Regier, Senior Scientist in Cancer Control at BC Cancer and co-chair of the MOHCCN Health Technology Assessment Working Group, conducted focus groups with individuals with lived and living experience with cancer to understand their values, expectations, and concerns for enhanced data sharing.

She introduced additional recycling bins, illustrative posters and education at BC Cancer – Abbotsford and Paulina Batke, registered nurse, saw an 83 per cent reduction in the number of recyclable items tossed in the garbage over four weeks.

A multidisciplinary team comprised of clinical experts, operations leaders and ambulatory clinic managers from BC Cancer have published a paper in the BC Medical Journal titled, “Eliminating the routine use of examination table paper in outpatient oncology clinics.”

Dr. Poul Sorensen (Molecular Oncology), with co-investigators Dr. Kevin Hay (Terry Fox Laboratory) and Dr. Wei Li (University of Pittsburgh), received a Project Grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) for their project titled, “Targeting metabolic vulnerabilities in childhood cancers using immunotherapy.”

Dr. Haifeng Zhang (Molecular Oncology), with the support of Dr. Poul Sorensen as mentor, received a young independent investigator grant from the Rally Foundation for Childhood Cancer Research (Rally). 

The award is tied to a project titled, “Immunotherapeutic targeting of IL1RAP in rare pediatric cancers.”

Rally helps fund all levels of promising research initiatives, from science at the bench to translational, and includes fellows, young investigators and independent investigators.

Congratulations to Dr. Zhang on this achievement!