 |
 |
| |
Ecstatic Top 10 Winners at the Grand Prize Show Home |
Net proceeds of $18.5 million from two annual lotteries supported the cancer research program at the Ontario Cancer Institute, the research arm of Princess Margaret Hospital. This is where 1,000 researchers, trainees and staff are at the leading edge of science that will become new treatments – and new hope – for cancer patients and their families.
The fall Cash, Cars & Condos lottery provided $8.8 million to cancer research, including the development of “smart drugs” that attack specific genes and make cancer cells die.
The spring Home Lottery provided $9.7 million to cancer research, including new guided-imaging tools that deliver real-time updates during treatment or surgery.
Smart Drugs and Cell Switches
Conquering cancer begins with researchers like Drs. Suzanne Trudel and Peter Cheung, who are unraveling why cells grow out of control, causing cancer.
Dr. Trudel is a cancer doctor specializing in multiple myeloma, a universally fatal type of blood cancer confined to bone marrow. She spends most of her time in the lab working with the genetics of the disease. This has led to the development of sharpshooting drugs that can zap specific genes and make cancer cells die. These new “smart drugs” are now being tested in early clinical trials with patients. The hope is they will deliver better results with fewer side effects and longer remissions.
“It's an exciting time in cancer research with breakthroughs in novel treatments that work differently and will extend life spans,” says Dr. Trudel.
In Dr. Cheung's lab, the cancer biologist is researching a signaling process that tells cells to grow or die. He works with proteins called histones around which DNA, the building block of life, is wrapped like a ball of string. These proteins have chemical tails that affect the ways cells behave.
By untangling the “string” and by manipulating the “tails”, Dr. Cheung and his team will be able to determine where the key switches are that signal cells to act in certain ways.
“These proteins are the gatekeepers that control access to DNA, and they help maintain the exquisite balance between cell growth and cell death. It's a central process at the very foundation of biology,” he says, “and the more knowledge we acquire, the more we can collaborate with other cancer researchers to advance their work, too.”
(l. to r.) In the lab: Dr. Peter Cheung, a cancer biologist, and Dr. Suzanne Trudel, a physician specializing in blood cancers.
 |
|
 |
Pioneering New Ways to See Inside the Body
The emergence of new computing technology and techniques that look inside the body is creating a powerful new frontier in medicine – image-guided surgery.
The convergence of imaging, computers, and novel surgical techniques is turning cancer surgeons into sharpshooters who are able to view, track, and treat internal structures of the body that are revealed through complex threedimensional images.
|
 |
| |
Dr. Jeff Siewerdsen, medical physicist, with the C-Arm, a guided imaging tool |
Pioneers of this new frontier are medical physicists like Dr. Jeffrey Siewerdsen at Princess Margaret Hospital's research arm, the Ontario Cancer Institute.
In the Image-Guided Therapy Lab, Dr. Siewerdsen is on the team leading the development of imaging tools that deliver fast, “real-time” updates and high-quality images during surgery or other treatment.
One such tool is a C-Arm developed in his laboratory. This sophisticated, portable imaging equipment rotates around the patient and combines several imaging techniques to generate 3-D images of soft tissues and the surrounding normal structures.
“It's important to see surrounding structures in the body to know what to target and what to avoid,” says Dr. Siewerdsen. “The result is better, more effective surgery and faster recovery.”
Dr. Jonathan Irish, the chief of surgical oncology at Princess Margaret Hospital and a specialist in head and neck head surgery, agrees: “Think of it as GPS for surgeons, where surgical tools along with the surgical target and surrounding anatomy are visualized precisely in real-time.”
 |
|
 |
| |
Impact: $18.5 million in net proceeds from Cash, Cars & Condos and the Home Lottery is helping advance breakthrough cancer research. Read more at www.pmhf.ca/Pages/Lotteries |
|
 |
|
 |
 |
|
Andy Reti, a Top10
winner in Cash,
Cars & Condos. |
|
 |
|
 |
|