Nov 6, 2017 - WELCOME. How has the work of a Canadian cancer researcher helped to advance our knowledge of cancer and im
PUBLIC LECTURE
CELEBRATION OF SCIENCE
Monday, November 6, 2017 5:30 – 7:00 pm Vancouver Convention Centre, Vancouver BC East Ballroom A and B
WELCOME How has the work of a Canadian cancer researcher helped to advance our knowledge of cancer and improve outcomes for cancer patients? This public lecture celebrates the scientific accomplishments of Dr. Connie J. Eaves, Distinguished Scientist, Terry Fox Laboratory, BC Cancer Agency and Professor, Medical Genetics at The University of British Columbia. This inspirational evening will help you to better understand Dr. Eaves’ work and how our understanding of cancer has evolved over the past half century.
AGENDA 5:30
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS
Dr. Shoukat Dedhar
5:40
THE VALUE OF RESEARCH: THE PATIENT PERSPECTIVE
Dodie Katzenstein
5:55
CANCER RESEARCH – A LIFETIME OF CHALLENGES, SURPRISES AND OPPORTUNITIES
Dr. Connie Eaves
6:35
CLOSING REMARKS
Dr. David Huntsman
6:45
QUESTIONS AND DISCUSSION
ABOUT THE CO-CHAIRS
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Shoukat Dedhar, PhD
Dodie Katzenstein, Patient Advocate
Dr. Dedhar is a professor of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and a Distinguished Scientist of the Department of Integrative Oncology at BC Cancer Agency. Dr. Dedhar received his BSc(Hons) in Biochemistry from the University in Aberdeen, and his PhD from UBC in 1984. He carried out a Postdoctoral Fellowship in the laboratory of Dr. Erkki Ruoslahti at the Burnham Institute in La Jolla, California. Dr. Dedhar is noted for his discovery of Integrin-Linked Kinase (ILK) and his research is currently focused on the role of ILK signaling in cancer progression, the molecular basis and targeting of centrosome clustering in cancer cells, and therapeutic targeting of tumor hypoxia effectors, Carbonic Anhydrases IX and XII.
Dodie Katzenstein is a journalist and media relations specialist. After 10 years as Director of Communications for BC Children’s Hospital, she worked as an independent consultant focusing on health care research.
Dr. Dedhar has received several awards, including the Distinguished Scholar award from the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research, the Terry Fox Cancer Research Scientist award of the National Cancer Institute of Canada, the Robert L Noble Prize (2013), for “Outstanding achievement in Cancer Research”, and the UBC Distinguished Medical Research Lectureship Award (2016). Dr. Dedhar is a recipient of a 7-year, $4.2M CIHR Foundation Scheme grant and he is an author of 208 peerreviewed papers and review articles, and an inventor on 24 patents. David Huntsman, MD, FRCPC, FCCMG Dr. David Huntsman is a Professor of the Departments of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and Obstetrics and Gynaecology at UBC, the Dr. Chew Wei Memorial Professor of Gynaecologic Oncology and is the Canada Research Chair in Molecular and Genomic Pathology. Dr. Huntsman directs OVCARE, BC’s multidisciplinary ovarian cancer research team and conducts his research at the BC Cancer Agency and the Vancouver General Hospital. Dr. Huntsman’s research has led to development of predictive and prognostic tissue based cancer biomarkers for ovarian cancer and a wide variety of other tumour types. His team created a blueprint for subtype specific ovarian cancer control and have been leaders in the application of novel genomic technologies to better prevent, diagnose and treat ovarian cancer. Collaboration and entrepreneurship are both critical ingredients of clinically relevant research. To that end Dr. Huntsman leads several Canadian and international collaborative networks and recently founded a company, Contextual Genomics, to increase the clinical and economic impact of his work.
She was diagnosed in 2001, at age 51, with advanced HER-2 positive breast cancer, with metastases to her liver, spine and, subsequently, her brain. Her initial prognosis was 12-18 months. When her condition continued to deteriorate after five months of traditional chemo, she started treatment with Herceptin, a then-new biotech therapy designed to target the specific source of her disease. Grateful for her care at the BC Cancer Agency’s Vancouver Centre, Dodie has volunteered as a patient advocate, writer and editor on several research projects, including a long-term study on improving communication between patients and cancer care providers. Her experience provides evidence that metastatic cancer, once considered invariably fatal, can now sometimes be managed as a chronic disease. To date, she has received 220 monthly infusions of Herceptin and is classified as a “super-responder,” one whose response to a course of treatment is far better than average. Dodie is interested in research on the question: why do cancer drugs work exceptionally well for some patients but not for others with similar diagnoses? The answer could revolutionize treatment across all cancer types. She also has now survived long enough to become a 3-time grandmother.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS Connie J. Eaves, PhD Distinguished Scientist at the Terry Fox Laboratory, BC Cancer Agency, Professor of Medical Genetics, University of British Columbia, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and Corresponding Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Dr. Connie Eaves is a world class researcher in normal and cancer stem cell biology. She is best known for her discoveries of methods to detect and characterize stem cells of the blood and breast, how these cells change during normal development and also when they become malignant. Dr. Eaves received a BA in Biology and Chemistry and a MSc in Biology (Genetics) from Queen’s University in 1964 and 1966. She then pursued doctoral training under the supervision of Dr. Lazlo Lajtha at the Paterson Laboratories of the Christie Hospital and Holt Radium Institute in Manchester UK and obtained a PhD from the University of Manchester in 1969. Her doctoral research generated the first evidence that there are two cell populations that contribute to the generation of antibody responses, subsequently identified as B and T lymphocytes. This important finding was published in Nature in 1968. After an additional year of postdoctoral work in radiobiology in the same institution, she returned to Canada to undertake further postdoctoral studies at the Ontario Cancer Institute in Toronto where she worked with Dr. James Till and Dr. Ernest McCulloch from 1970-73.
In 1973, Dr. Eaves was recruited to the BC Cancer Institute (now the BC Cancer Agency) as a National Cancer Institute of Canada Scholar and became the BC Cancer Institute’s second full-time scientist. Her first responsibility was to help develop a preclinical negative pi-meson radiobiology research program using the TRIUMF facility. At the same time she was appointed Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical Genetics at the University of British Columbia. In 1981, Dr. Eaves co-founded the Terry Fox Laboratory in Vancouver with her husband, Dr. Allen Eaves. Working together, the couple and their team went on to discover that healthy blood stem cells from patients with leukemia could be kept alive in the lab while the leukemic stem cells died off. This suggested that patients with leukemia who were healthy enough to be considered for treatment with a bone marrow transplant but lacked a suitable donor might be able to use their own bone marrow – purged of cancer cells in the lab. A clinical trial demonstrating the feasibility was then successfully launched together with clinical colleagues across Canada. Building on this research, Dr. Eaves applied lessons learned from studies of blood stem cells to identifying the cells responsible for maintaining the mammary gland in both mice and humans. With her team and many collaborators, she developed a new way to track how these cells grow in transplanted mice by first tagging the DNA of each cell to be transplanted with a unique “barcode.” Using this technique, they discovered new patterns of growth of both normal and malignant cells using special immune deficient mice to follow transplants of human cells. They are now using this approach to track the multi-step process of human cancer development that they recreate by genetically altering cells obtained
directly from discarded normal human tissue. Their results already show that the acquisition of the hallmarks of cancer do not necessarily follow the sequence anticipated from historical studies of mice. These findings highlight the importance of obtaining a deeper understanding of the order and spectrum of perturbations that cause the final development of human cancers. For over 40 years, Dr. Eaves has been the primary mentor of more than 90 talented graduate students and post-doctoral fellows, including many with a medical background. A significant number of these individuals have since become internationally recognized scientists in their own right in Canada, the USA, Europe and Asia. She has also devoted much energy to the successful development of collaborative research programs locally, nationally, and internationally and she continues to serve in the governance and administration of cancer research funding worldwide. Throughout her scientific career Dr. Eaves has been recognized by numerous awards including: the NCIC Robert L. Noble Prize for Excellence in Cancer Research (2003), the Terry Fox Medal of the BC Medical Society (2005), the Stem Cell Network Till and McCulloch Lectureship Award (2006), the Genome BC Award for Scientific Excellence (2007), the International Society for Experimental Hematology Metcalf Award (2008), the American Society of Hematology Stratton Prize for Lifetime Achievement (2009), the International Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Foundation Rowley Prize (2013), the Government of Canada, Status of Women Canada, Selected Woman Pioneer (Science, 2013), and the Chew-Wei Prize in Cancer Research (2016).
The Public Lecture is presented by:
The Canadian Cancer Research Alliance is supported by the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer through a financial contribution from Health Canada. The views expressed at the Public Lecture represent those of the speakers.
THANK YOU Thank you for attending the Public Lecture and for your interest in cancer research in Canada. We hope that you found the presentations both informative and inspiring. SPECIAL THANKS TO ALL OUR SUPPORTERS! PLATINUM LEVEL
SILVER LEVEL
Canadian Cancer Society
BC Cancer Agency
Canadian Institutes of Health Research
Breast Cancer Society of Canada
Canadian Partnership Against Cancer Ontario Institute of Cancer Research The Terry Fox Research Institute
Cancer Care Ontario Cancer Research Society Fonds de recherche du Québec Santé Genome Canada
BRONZE LEVEL Alberta Cancer Foundation The Alberta Epigenetics Network BC Children’s Hospital Foundation The Centre for Drug Research and Development Garron Family Cancer Centre Merck
The Princess Margaret Cancer Centre Prostate Cancer Canada Roche Saskatchewan Cancer Agency Thermo Fisher Scientific University of Calgary
SUPPORTERS Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research National Research Council Quebec Breast Cancer Foundation Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation Seattle Genetics SickKids Research Institute UBC Faculty of Medicine
OTHER Canadian Association of Radiation Oncology
C17 Research Network Cancer Research Institute of Northern Alberta CancerCare Manitoba Genome British Columbia Gerald Bronfman Department of Oncology, McGill University Ovarian Cancer Canada Research Manitoba
