Potential new treatment for brain cancer earns funding

Posted May 10, 2010

left to right; Stephen Robbins, PhD., Dr. Peter Forsyth and Donna Senger, PhD, in their U of C labA study testing a new class of drugs on a small group of patients with brain tumours has received a Canadian Cancer Society grant.

Dr. Peter Forsyth, a cancer researcher at the Clark H. Smith Brain Tumour Centre, University of Calgary and Alberta Health Services and his collaborators in Calgary and Toronto, are receiving more than $300,000 to determine if the discovery of a potential new treatment for brain cancer discovered in collaboration with Drs. Stephen Robbins and Donna Senger, might be effective in patients.   This provides the unique opportunity of translating a discovery they made in the laboratory into a clinical trial in patients with recurrent malignant gliomas.  

“This is a very important clinical trial for Albertans and Canadians alike,” says Dr. Michael Weinfeld, a cancer researcher at the University of Alberta and Canadian Cancer Society board member. “The findings of clinical trials like this could have a tremendous impact on the lives of those affected by brain cancer. We are fortunate to have an outstanding community of cancer researchers in Canada and by supporting their work, the Canadian Cancer Society is making a great deal of progress in the fight against cancer.”
 
Approximately 2,600 Canadians will be diagnosed with brain cancer this year. The most common type of brain cancer is malignant glioma, which despite treatment advances in recent years, has a life expectancy of approximately one year. Dr. Forsyth’s innovative and promising research in the field of brain tumours has put him in the international spotlight.

The Canadian Cancer Society, the largest national charitable funder of cancer research, contributed nearly $50 million to research projects across the country last year. Groundbreaking research, like that of Dr. Forsyth and his colleagues in Calgary and Toronto, is advancing how cancer is prevented, diagnosed, treated and ultimately cured.

Public contributions, which fund the Canadian Cancer Society, are allowing great progress through research in the fight against cancer. Today, more than 62 per cent of Canadians will survive a cancer diagnosis – that’s nearly double the survival rate in the 1960s.