By Nicole Park and Nandini Raghuram Hello everyone! There has been a lot of activity over here at RIOT recently. We thought we would share with you some updates on an incredible event that we just held this past April! An important aspect of what we do at RIOT is to increase awareness on the … Continue reading Teaching Cancer Research to the Next Generation: A Recap of Let’s Talk Cancer 2017
Can a Genetic Test Help Personalize Prostate Cancer Treatment for Men?
By Joseph Longo Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among Canadian men, with 1 in 8 men expected to develop the disease in their lifetime. Thanks to advances in early detection and screening, prostate cancer treatments have significantly improved over the years and, if caught early, the 5-year survival rate is nearly 100%. … Continue reading Can a Genetic Test Help Personalize Prostate Cancer Treatment for Men?
Drug Repurposing for Colorectal Cancer: Redesigning a House Into a Bookstore
By Douglas Chung What if there was a quicker and cheaper way to bring forth more treatment options for people with cancer? Researchers are trying to do just that by repurposing drugs used for other diseases to treat cancer. The process of drug development is a costly and lengthy process. Candidate drugs must undergo multiple … Continue reading Drug Repurposing for Colorectal Cancer: Redesigning a House Into a Bookstore
A ‘Big Bang’ Theory of Pancreatic Cancer Development
By Dr. Kinjal Desai Relatively rare compared to more common cancers, pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer death in both women and men in Canada. Survival beyond 5 years is below 10%. What makes pancreatic cancer so deadly? In part, this is due to the appearance of disease symptoms when the cancer … Continue reading A ‘Big Bang’ Theory of Pancreatic Cancer Development
Tackling the Fear of Cancer Recurrence: An Interview With Survivorship Researcher Dr. Christine Maheu
By Sangeetha Paramathas How long have you been in the research field? I started my PhD in 1998 and began conducting research in 1996 by being a research assistant at the master’s level. What does your research focus on? For my PhD at UBC, I interviewed 22 families who were testing inconclusive for the genes … Continue reading Tackling the Fear of Cancer Recurrence: An Interview With Survivorship Researcher Dr. Christine Maheu
Autophagy: a Fundamental Cellular Process That Goes Haywire in Cancer
By: Mike Pryszlak Image: tumour cells exploit the autophagic process The Nobel Prize, established by Alfred Nobel in 1895, is the highest award an individual can receive for their academic, cultural or scientific contributions. Alfred was himself a chemist and inventor who amassed a fortune by inventing Nobel’s Blasting Powder, or dynamite, and subsequently became … Continue reading Autophagy: a Fundamental Cellular Process That Goes Haywire in Cancer
Statins: From Cholesterol Control to Cancer Care
By: Joseph Longo Faced with increasing costs for the development of new drugs, researchers are now looking to repurpose older drugs as a relatively quick and inexpensive way of improving treatment options for cancer patients. One promising class of drugs that is receiving increased attention is the statin family of cholesterol-lowering medication. Statins have been … Continue reading Statins: From Cholesterol Control to Cancer Care
Ready-or-not here we come: opening our eyes to the fight on cancer
By: Martin Smith, PhD Cancer cells are locked into an epic game of hide-and-seek with our body. Naturally, our body is tuned to recognize and eliminate foreign matter with the help of our immune system. Cancer is no exception. Routine inspection shows the presence of tumour infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) deep inside of tumours removed during … Continue reading Ready-or-not here we come: opening our eyes to the fight on cancer
The Crucial Role of Patient Samples in Cancer Research
Cancer research can take on many forms, and many major discoveries have been made using organisms such as roundworms, fruit flies, mice and rats. However, patients themselves play a crucial role in research, from participation in clinical trials to providing tumour samples for researchers to study. Perhaps the most famous example is the case … Continue reading The Crucial Role of Patient Samples in Cancer Research
New Hope for Elderly Patients with Glioblastoma
Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most devastating and common form of adult brain cancer worldwide, afflicting 2-3 of every 100,000 individuals. While the pace of basic research into the disease has been fast with constant new discoveries at the bench, translation of this knowledge to the bedside has proved to be an especially great challenge. There … Continue reading New Hope for Elderly Patients with Glioblastoma
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