ARCHIVED - Health Research - Investing in Canada's Future 2003-2004

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Cancer

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) is the Government of Canada’s premier agency for health research.

Through CIHR, the Government of Canada invested more than $93 million in cancer research across Canada.

The Facts

• In 2003, an estimated 710,000 Canadians (2.25%) were living with cancer.
• In 2003, it was estimated that 139,900 Canadians would be diagnosed with cancer and 67,400 would die from it. Cancer is now the leading cause of premature death in Canada.
• Based on current incidence rates, during their lifetime, 38% of Canadian women and 41% of Canadian men will develop cancer. More than half can expect to survive their disease.
• The most common cancer for women is breast cancer; for men, it is prostate cancer. Leukemia is the most common childhood cancer.
• Smoking is the cause of at least 30% of fatal cancers in Canada and the overwhelming cause of lung cancer.
• Lung cancer is the leading cause of death from cancer for both men and women, accounting for about one-third of deaths in men and one-quarter of deaths in women. Colorectal cancer is the second most frequent cause of death from cancer among Canadians.
• Cancer costs Canadians more than $14 billion every year. Of that total, $2.5 billion is for direct costs, such as hospitalization and medication, while $11.75 billion is for indirect costs, such as early death or disability.

Research

Improving Health

• A common and inexpensive antibiotic – tetracycline – has reduced the incidence of bone metastases in breast and prostate cancers by up to 70% in mice, according to CIHR-funded research conducted by Dr. Gurmit Singh, Director of Research at the Hamilton Regional Cancer Centre and Professor at Hamilton’s McMaster University. Clinical trials to test the drug’s effectiveness in humans are the next step. The drug works by preventing an enzyme called matrix metalloproteinase from attacking bone tissue and allowing the tumours to spread.
• A virus found in cattle and pigs has been effective in killing cancerous cells in mice by growing inside the tumour cells and killing them. Drs. John Bell and David Stojdl of the Ottawa Regional Cancer Centre say the virus also makes normal cells more resistant and teaches the body to protect itself from a recurrence of the cancer. They hope to begin trials in humans in late 2004.
• A CIHR-funded researcher from McGill, Dr. William Muller, is part of a team that has successfully reversed breast cancer in mice. The team has learned how to throw a genetic “switch” to turn off the beta-1 integrin gene, which regulates normal breast tissue growth but causes tumours if it malfunctions. Without the gene switched “on,” tumours can’t grow. The challenge is now to develop a drug that will shut down the gene in humans.
• Although ovarian cancer is not common, the lack of early symptoms and the absence of a screening test means that often the disease is already far advanced by the time it is discovered. Dr. Linda Cook, of the University of Calgary, is creating a population-based program to identify risk factors associated with ovarian cancer, to better inform women about the disease. At the same time, she is examining molecular changes in the tumours that could lead to new treatments for the disease.
• Dr. Patrick Lee has developed a reovirus that kills cancerous cells while leaving healthy cells alone. Now at Dalhousie University, Dr. Lee received ongoing support from CIHR while he was at the University of Calgary, where he found that reovirus tested in mice shrank tumours from brain cancer significantly or made them regress completely. The drug he has developed, Reolysin, is now being tested in humans, and could be used to fight breast, lung and neck tumours while avoiding the traumatic side effects of chemotherapy.
• Physical activity can reduce the risk of breast cancer by 30-40% in post-menopausal women, according to research conducted by Dr. Christine Friedenreich, of the Alberta Cancer Board. Dr Friedenreich is supported by CIHR through the Canadian Breast Cancer Research Initiative. Current studies focus on defining the kinds and levels of physical activity that reduce the risk the most. Her research may also be relevant for colon, prostate and lung cancers.
• Dr. Guy Sauvageau, of the Institut de recherches cliniques de Montréal, has identified a gene called Bmi-1 that is essential for the proliferation of stem cells involved in leukemia. His discovery means that the gene provides a major new therapeutic target for therapy in the treatment of leukemia and possibly of other cancers.

The CIHR Institute

CIHR’s Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), under the leadership of Scientific Director Dr. Philip Branton, supports research to reduce the burden of cancer on individuals and families. Its goals are to help prevent and treat cancer while improving the health and quality of life of people with the disease. ICR, in consultation with its partners, has identified six major research priorities: palliative and end-of-life care, molecular profiling of tumours, early detection, functional and molecular imaging, risk behaviour and prevention, and clinical trials. Other priorities include capacity building and training in cancer research and the promotion of translational research on promising new therapies.

The Partners

CIHR’s Institute of Cancer Research is a leading member of the Canadian Strategy for Cancer Control, an alliance established to examine patient care and health service delivery, identify research priorities and take a coordinated approach to supporting strategic cancer research. Other ICR research partners include the National Cancer Institute of Canada, the Canadian Association of Provincial Cancer Agencies, Health Canada, the Cancer Research Society, the Alberta Cancer Board, Cancer Care Ontario, Cancer Care Nova Scotia, le Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec, the Ontario Cancer Research Network, the Canadian Breast Cancer Research Alliance, CURE Foundation, the Canadian Tobacco Control Research Initiative, the Canadian Prostate Research Initiative, the National Ovarian Cancer Association and the Newton Foundation.

The People

Joy Yorath was unprepared when a biopsy in early 1997 revealed she had breast cancer.

“I was thrown for a loop,” Ms. Yorath says now. “Little things, like being late, don’t matter anymore. The big picture is what really counts.”

Her son and daughter were as shaken as she was. Ms. Yorath’s daughter, a grade one school teacher, felt that the emotional turmoil of the diagnosis and treatment would have an impact on her teaching skills. Her son, who had a benign tumour removed from his leg early in life, feared that the same malignant diagnosis would befall him.

Ms. Yorath considered taking part in a clinical trial of tamoxifen and radiation, but decided against it. Surgery in March 1997 was followed by 16 radiation sessions.

“Your whole life has to be worked around when the hospital can take you in,” she recalls.

Today, Ms. Yorath is a breast cancer survivor, an active paddler in annual ‘Dragon Boat’ races and in great physical shape. But she knows that can change at any time.

“You’re never really out of the woods when it comes to this disease,” she says.

Now Ms. Yorath wants to help other cancer patients survive their diagnosis by bringing a patient’s perspective to the research process. She was an inaugural member of the Institute Advisory Board of CIHR’s Institute of Cancer Research, and is thrilled to be part of an Institute that is so well focused in its research ambitions.

“I was honoured that I was the only one asked to join from B.C.,” she admits. “It was an opportunity to give something back and learn at the same time.”

What Ms. Yorath has learned, is that cancer might be hereditary – which was not a total surprise. Her father died from prostate, stomach and skin cancer and five of her seven aunts also succumbed to breast cancer.

As for the future, Ms. Yorath is hopeful. In her eyes, it’s only a matter of time before hope turns into reality.

“I’m convinced that they’re going to find a cure,” she says.

About the Canadian Institutes of Health Research

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research is the Government of Canada’s premier agency for health research. Its objective is to excel, according to internationally accepted standards of scientific excellence, in the creation of new knowledge and its translation into improved health for Canadians, more effective health services and products and a strengthened Canadian health care system.

For more information, visit: www.cihr-irsc.gc.ca.