So... what have we accomplished?

Research is not a solo endeavour - no one ever works in a successful lab by themselves. I have been very fortunate to work with a team of very bright and creative people. Postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, research associates, technicians, undergraduate and summer students have all contributed to our research program in one way or another. Mostly it’s by doing the challenging experiments in the lab, but sometimes it’s through inspiration. Some of my best students were not brilliant scientists themselves, but were high-energy motivators of the rest of the team. Each member of my research team brings their own strengths to the table, and I value very much every member of my team and the work that they do. They challenge me and make me laugh, and there is nothing more delightful than having a student appear at my office door wearing a big grin. It is the euphoria that precedes the announcement of an experiment done well, or an unexpected but interesting result.

A young journalist recently interviewed me and asked the "dreaded question" - so what have you accomplished? He meant, I know, what have you done that helps women with ovarian cancer? This question is so hard to answer because the answer depends on the perspective. Since I started out life on a farm, I will use a farmer's analogy - you have to plow the field before you can plant the seeds. And what we have done for ovarian cancer in Canada is plow the field. In the past few years we have:
- trained students to become scientists with an interest in ovarian cancer, thereby building the number of ovarian cancer scientists in Canada from 3 to almost 30.
- established a national network of ovarian cancer tissue banks with the four primary sites in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal and here in Ottawa. These tissues, donated by ovarian cancer patients at the time of their surgery, are tremendously important for scientists who want to study how these cancers form, how they progress, and how we can stop them from growing.
- built bridges between scientists and doctors so that what is discovered in the lab is immediately evaluated for its potential application in the clinic.
- identified proteins that are expressed in ovarian cancers and that make good targets for new drugs; and we have started to test some of those new drugs on women with ovarian cancer.
- worked with fund-raising organizations to devote funds to pilot projects on ovarian cancer with a special focus on those that have new ideas for identifying strategies for the prevention or early detection of ovarian cancer.
- generated the world's first and only transgenic animal model of ovarian cancer that is being used to study how the disease begins, how to detect it, how to prevent it or slow its progression, and how to treat it effectively.
- jumped all over new treatments, like oncolytic viruses, to test them in these models of ovarian cancer, to help pave the way for women with ovarian cancer to be eligible for the clinical trials of this new treatment when it becomes available.
In summary, we have plowed the field and we have planted many seeds. And not just one kind of seed. We have planted seeds for prevention, for early detection, for treatment, and for quality of life. And we are at the stage where we are nurturing our young plants, watching them carefully and hoping that at least one field will yield enough for a good harvest.

And, on that note of optimism, I wish you all happy holidays and a new year filled with laughter, chocolate and the thrill of discovery.

I try find ways to improve the fate of the 2,600 Canadian women who are newly diagnosed with ovarian cancer each year.

My role as an ovarian cancer researcher is to ultimately find ways to improve the fate of the 2,600 Canadian women who are newly diagnosed with ovarian cancer each year. My laboratory does that by performing studies that increase our understanding of what ovarian cancer is, how it starts, how it progresses and how best to stop it. The research projects that are most active in my lab right now include the testing of new cancer treatments, including oncolytic viruses, the investigation of the earliest events when ovarian cancer begins, and the role of stem cells in the development of ovarian cancer – all projects aimed at developing strategies for prevention, early detection and effective treatment of ovarian cancer. At the moment, we are very excited about recent experiments that are showing how estrogen promotes the risk of ovarian cancer. We know that the use of oral contraceptives reduces the risk of ovarian cancer, but estrogen-only hormone replacement therapy increases the risk, and our research is beginning to explain why. Perhaps more than most scientists, I am acutely aware of the importance of community support for what I do. I hold an endowed chair that was established because one man took on the responsibility of ensuring that no woman would have to suffer the fate of his wife, Corinne, who survived breast cancer, and then melanoma, and then died from ovarian cancer. I would not be doing my job as the Corinne Boyer Chair in Ovarian Cancer Research if I did not tell you something about this deadly disease. Every woman knows about breast cancer, but a recent survey found that 12% of Canadian women had never even heard of ovarian cancer.
There is no reliable method to screen for ovarian cancer. Almost 70% of women diagnosed with ovarian cancer will die of it, most within 3-4 years. And 96% of women cannot identify the combination of symptoms that are associated with ovarian cancer. They are:
• Abdominal bloating or discomfort
• Changes in bowel function
• More frequent urination
• Unexplained weight gain
• Nausea
Changes in menstrual patterns If any of these symptoms persists for more than three weeks, see your physician, and raise the possibility of an investigation for ovarian cancer.

Ottawa's Cancer Research Group

In March 1995, four cancer researchers - Mike McBurney, John Bell, Doug Gray and I, moved our labs from the University of Ottawa to the third floor of the newly constructed cancer centre. We had spent 5 years designing this research floor, and when we finally moved into our new space, we were like kids in a candy store - limited only by our imagination and our willingness to explore. Mike McBurney, our director, gave us only two instructions: play nice with each other, and play nice with the neighbours.
Looking back, those two characteristics are what define the strength and the uniqueness of the cancer research group today. In adult terms, the key words are team and translational research. Working as a team has been a foundation of our group from the start. When we received the architectural plans for our new research floor, the first thing that we did was erase the internal walls - we didn't want any barriers to the flow of communication among the different labs. We not only work in shared space but, from the start, and still today, the cancer researchers can be found every day in the hospital cafeteria for lunch. We share the results of our recent experiments, describe interesting topics that we have recently read about, or discuss the best way to tackle a particularly tough problem. In this way, information is shared and little problems get solved on a daily basis. In the early days, we spent a lot of time talking about how to ensure that the research floor ran as efficiently and cheaply as possible. With a Scottish man as our director, it’s no surprise that we have maintained our basic principles of high quality research performed as frugally as possible. Teamwork among the cancer researchers is really our standard way of doing things.
The Director's second instruction - to play nice with the neighbours - turned out to be an idea before its time. The term "translational research" had not yet been coined, but we were already doing it - developing strong connections with the clinicians downstairs to ensure that anything we discovered in the lab could be assessed immediately for its potential to have impact on cancer patients. This third floor of the Cancer Centre, now known as the Center for Cancer Therapeutics, currently is home to nine scientists and three clinician-scientists and more than 100 graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and technicians who all share the same goal - to translate ideas for better strategies to prevent, detect and treat cancer from the lab to the clinic.