Donations aim to make city a hub for children’s cancer research
Aiming to make Montreal the Canadian hub for research into pediatric leukemia and lymphoma, a group of local foundations and the Canadian Cancer Society have teamed up to donate $3.8 million to fund seven projects over the next five years.
Twenty-five researchers — the bulk of whom work at Ste-Justine Hospital — will pursue treatments that harness the body’s immune system and that seek to reduce side-effects.
Mégane Parent, a 16-year-old high school student from St-Jeansur-Richelieu, visited Ste-Justine on Tuesday to show her support for the research projects. Ten days before last Christmas, Mégane learned that she has lymphoma.
“It’s super important for me to be here,” Mégane said, standing next to her parents. “This research will increase the chances of survival for children with cancer.”
Cancer is the leading cause of death by disease for children in Canada. This year, about 300 children under the age of 15 in Quebec will discover they have cancer. Leukemia and lymphoma account for more than 40 per cent of childhood cancer cases.
Despite numerous advances, clinicians and researchers face many challenges with childhood leukemia and lymphoma, including preventing secondary cancers as well as side-effects that range from heart problems to cognitive disabilities.
The Canadian Cancer Society has joined forces with the Cole Foundation to fund the research projects. Barry Cole, president of the Cole Foundation, said one of his goals is to transform Montreal into a centre of excellence for research into childhood and earlyadult leukemia and lymphoma.
“Montreal has an abundance of resources in the field of medicine,” Cole explained.
“If we were in Toronto, for example, we would all be aligned to the University of Toronto. But here in Montreal we have three different universities doing research: the Université du Québec, through the Institut Armand-Frappier; the Université de Montréal, which has a very big medical program; and McGill University, which is worldfamous.
“The silo effect is a natural thing that happens in all sectors with different institutions,” he continued. “We’re trying to break down the walls of the institutions and have people meet and get together and create new teams so that there is more synergy, there is more cooperation. We’re pooling the resources in a better way.”
One of the research projects involves identifying young patients who are at risk of a recurrence of acute myeloid leukemia after treatment. Josée Hébert, the lead researcher, said her team is hoping to discover genetic characteristics specific to residual leukemia cells and monitor them in people with the disease.
As for Mégane, she said she is heartened by the support of her family, friends and the staff at Ste-Justine. “Most of the time I feel good, but after chemo there are days when it’s difficult to get up, difficult to eat with all the nausea,” she added. “But I’m lucky, as I haven’t been suffering from many side-effects from the chemo.”