Cancer research in our Experimental Oncology Division

• Researchers in the Experimental Oncology Division at the University of Alberta and Cross Cancer Institute are engaged in all phases of cancer research, from basic science research through to clinical trials and long term patient studies.
• We study processes that underlie all forms of cancer, especially how mutations occur because of DNA damage and repair.
• We develop ideas and concepts that apply to all forms of cancer.
• We have specific expertise in many types of cancer:
  • Breast cancer
  • Prostate cancer
  • Ovarian cancer
  • Colorectal cancer
  • Brain cancers such as glioblastoma
  • Retinoblastoma and neuroblastoma
  • Bladder cancer
  • Multiple myeloma
  • Lymphoma
  • Leukemia

What types of samples do we use? 

Molecules

• Molecules are what drives all of biology.
• The types of molecules we study include:
  • DNA
  • RNA
  • Proteins
  • Lipids

Cancer cells

• Cancer cells are what drives the disease.
• The types of cells we study include:
  • Cell lines → cells that originally came from a tumour but have been grown for a long time in petri dishes and can be easily manipulated and shared between scientists
  • Primary cells → cells freshly taken from a patient and grown for a short time in petri dishes to conduct a limited number of experiments

Patient samples

• Patient samples are what allows us to study how cancer behaves in patients.
• Patients generously donate many types of samples:
  • Blood samples
  • Tumour biopsies
  • Diagnostic images
• We always obtain ethical approval and patient consent before collecting these samples.

Patients

• Patient participation in clinical trials is what allows us to see if the therapies developed through basic research effectively treats the cancer.
• Patients can enroll in many types of trials through the Edmonton-CCI Clinical Trials Unit.
  • Strict ethical approvals are followed in all of these studies to maximize patient safety and potential benefit.
• Basic scientists and clinicians work together on these trials to maximize the critical information they provide.

What techniques do we use?

Tissue culture

• Tissue culture involves growing cells in dishes in specialized incubators that replicate the conditions seen in the human body.
• We can manipulate these cells by adding or deleting genes or treating them with substances that will alter the molecules and processes in the cells.
• By observing how the cells react to our manipulations, we can learn how specific molecules misbehave in cancer cells and what can be done to change this.

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Animal models

• Animal models allow us to observe how cancer cells behave in the complex environment of a body.
  • This is critical because cancer cells are strongly influenced by other cells around them and it is currently impossible to replicate these conditions in petri dishes.
  • All of our work is first approved by the Canadian Council on Animal Care, which ensures the animals' welfare.
• We induce cancer in models by injecting tumour cells or adding or deleting suspected cancer-related genes.
  • We can then observe how cancer cells and healthy cells interact, how cancer cells move throughout the body and how different treatments alter these behaviours.

Clinical trials

• Patients participating in clinical trials allow us to determine how effective new treatments are.
  • In order to determine this, we study samples taken during treatment, such as blood, biopsies and scans.
  • Before we can do this work, we obtain ethical approval by the Human Research Ethics Board of Alberta.
• By comparing before and after samples or samples between patients with different treatments, we can monitor how the treatment changes the biology of both the tumour cells and healthy cells in the body.