$100,000 to go toward research into developing cancer-fighting vaccine

Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation funds projects aimed at treating leukemia, abdominal tumours

The Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation has invested $100,000 in local research aimed at treating leukemia and abdominal tumours with a cancer-fighting vaccine.

The money will go toward two Ottawa research projects being sponsored by BioCanRx, a federally-funded, not-for-profit organization dedicated to accelerating the development of cancer immunotherapies in Canada.

One study, led by Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI) scientist Dr. Natasha Kekre, is working toward the development of a vaccine therapy for acute leukemia, a type of blood cancer that remains difficult to cure.

Aggressive chemotherapy and stem cell transplants are now used to treat the disease, but the therapies succeed in only about five per cent of cases where patients have relapsed.

Kekre is conducting research on mice to establish the scientific basis for a human clinical trial to test a new vaccine strategy.

The idea is to infect a leukemia patient’s tumour cells with a cancer-killing virus that also enlists the individual’s immune system in the fight against the disease.

A second grant will go toward a project led by OHRI scientists Dr. Rebecca Auer and Dr. Jean- Simon Diallo, who are investigating the use of a vaccine therapy to treat abdominal tumours, which can grow rapidly and cause serious pain and discomfort.

The therapy under investigation seeks to develop a personalized vaccine from an individual’s own tumour cells, which have been harvested and infected with a cancerkilling virus.

The grant money was raised by the foundation’s Drew Lyall Legacy Fund.

Drew Lyall, the founding president and CEO of BioCanRx, died of melanoma in January 2016 after an extended battle with cancer. A strong believer in the potential of immunotherapy, he left a bequest in his will to launch the legacy fund.

During a cancer remission in December 2014, Lyall told an Ottawa audience, “As a survivor, I imagine a time when I could be given a vaccine from my own cancer cells that would turn back the tide of melanoma.”

Linda Eagen, president and CEO of the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation, said she’s proud to be able to support local research that might one day make Lyall’s dream a reality.

“The cancer foundation’s focus has always been to enhance world leading personalized cancer care close to home,” she said.

The foundation has provided more than $5 million in funding to local cancer researchers since being founded in 1995.

As a survivor, I imagine a time when I could be given a vaccine from my own cancer cells that would turn back the tide of melanoma.