It's been over four decades since Terry Fox's Marathon of Hope launched cancer research to unprecedented levels around the world.
Money raised each year for the Terry Fox Foundation supports world-class cancer research at the Terry Fox Research Institute (TFRI) and in labs, clinics, centres and hospitals around the country, including right here in Manitoba.
Manitoba cancer researcher, Dr. Sachin Katyal, knows first-hand the importance of the Terry Fox Run and the funds raised through this initiative that takes place each September, how researchers, clinicians, data scientists, and patient partners from across the country are able to work together to find new and better ways to diagnose, treat, and prevent cancer.
Dr. Katyal is an Associate Professor at the University of Manitoba, Senior Scientist at the Paul Albrechtsen Research Institute, and Director of the Manitoba Tumor Bank at Cancer Care Manitoba. He is a leading researcher in precision oncology, a cancer treatment that targets the specific characteristics of each individual's tumor.
As part of the Marathon of Hope Cancer Centres Network, Dr. Katyal co-leads a project with other cancer clinicians and researchers to pursue an end to cancer through precision medicine, which targets the unique molecular characteristics of each cancer patient’s tumor.
“We're really in an exciting time with cancer research. We're in this age of precision oncology,” explains Dr. Katyal. “My background training was in the really traditional molecular biology, cell biology, looking at the cell. But we’ve got now to a point where we can look at an individual person’s genomics, genetics, and we can look at genes that are turned on, and genes that are turned off, because genes are turned on and off during development as we grow and as we age.”
“But then specific genes are mutated and turned on and turned off in cancer, and so we now have the tools which I use in my research and in my team with other researchers and other clinicians to specifically look at individual cancers in relation to their individual genetics and see what's different in the cancer compared to the individual that the cancer has grown in,” he continues.
“And there's now ability to look at targets or vulnerabilities that we can come up with a cocktail or individualized treatment plan to take advantage of those findings, so, those individual changes in the tumor to tailor a treatment strategy for each individual with cancer.”
“In the past,” he adds, “we used broad stroke approaches developed 30-40 years ago with limited success. But now we're in this age of genomics, genetics and precision oncology medicine with which we can tailor, make an individual treatment regimen for each individual person with cancer.”
In 2018 Dr. Katyal was the first researcher in Manitoba to receive the $450,000 Terry Fox New Investigator award for his “quick-to-clinic” personalized medicine approach to better treat patients with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), a grade 4 malignant brain tumor. He used this funding to analyze resistant brain cancer tumor cells to determine what DNA-damaging enzyme repair proteins are allowing cancer cells to survive following chemotherapy and radiation treatments.
'We’ve learned more about cancer in the last 10 years than we have in the previous 50! And the pace of discovery just continues to accelerate,' states the Terry Fox Foundation website.
Dr. Katyal has quoted a favorite saying from a mentor at CancerCare Manitoba; 'Today's medicine is yesterday's science'.
"It's really true," he explains. "We have doctors and clinicians who are giving us the latest and greatest treatments, but it takes many years to get to those treatments. We're talking about decades of past research that has gone on to be today's treatments which is why we need to keep on investing in research so that we can have tomorrow's treatments."
"The way research has been progressing and the findings are progressing, we can get to knowledge treatments faster today. And so, the more investment in research, the faster we get newer and better treatments. So, the future of medicine looks really bright, but it really starts with today's investments in research."
For more information about the Terry Fox Foundation, click here.