Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women around the world. Although decades of research has taught us about the biology of the disease, it still remains a challenge to treat. We want to give you a glimpse into what roadblocks scientists face and what is being done to overcome them. Here, we start with a brief background on Breast Cancer. Check back for more posts!
… More Power in Pink
By Sangeetha Paramathas We are living in an era where technological advances allow researchers to answer key questions relating to cancer biology in ways that they never could before. New and powerful approaches have opened doors particularly in the field of precision medicine; interventions that draw upon knowledge gained from biomedical research allowing for personalized … More Liquid biopsies: A blood test for detecting and monitoring cancer?
By Dr. Nathan Schachter For years, scientists have struggled to understand why cancers that return – or ‘relapse’ – are so difficult to treat. How can therapies which were initially effective at controlling the disease fail to combat tumors that re-emerge? Why do relapses often behave more aggressively than pre-treatment tumors? These questions have plagued … More Returning with Vengeance: Toronto Scientists Discover How Rare Brain Cancer Cells Resist Therapy and Drive Tumor Recurrence
By Dr. Martin Smith Your Mom would be very happy. Cancer researchers have published studies showing that eating vegetables like broccoli may lower the risk for developing some cancers (1). Taking this idea one step further, researchers want to know if we can extract a key compound from vegetables and put it into pill form. … More Chemoprevention: What Researchers Are Learning From Your Mom
By Joseph Longo About half of all cancer patients will be treated with radiation therapy at some point during the course of their disease. Conventional radiation therapy involves the delivery of high doses of radiation to the tumour, usually in multiple smaller doses called fractions. When a cell is irradiated, its DNA becomes damaged. If … More Awakening Cancer-Fighting Cells of the Immune System Using Radiation Therapy
By Dr. Martin Smith You know the feeling… It could start with a nagging headache. Or, it could be the flush feeling of an oncoming fever. Whatever it may be, many of us can relate to the symptoms of an impending viral infection. But, what if those same symptoms became signals of life saving treatments? … More Wielding a Double-Edged Sword: Oncolytic Viruses in Cancer Therapy
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 … More Teaching Cancer Research to the Next Generation: A Recap of Let’s Talk Cancer 2017
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%. … More Can a Genetic Test Help Personalize Prostate Cancer Treatment for Men?
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 … More Drug Repurposing for Colorectal Cancer: Redesigning a House Into a Bookstore
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 … More A ‘Big Bang’ Theory of Pancreatic Cancer Development
