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The first multidisciplinary program of its kind in Canada to study metastasis of breast cancer, led by the BC Cancer Agency, has been awarded $3.36 million by the Canadian Breast Cancer Research Alliance (CBCRA), with special support from the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.

This national study will focus specifically on breast cancer metastasis, the spread of cells from a primary tumour to another site in the body, and the main cause of death from breast cancer. To date, advances in breast cancer treatment have not taken into account the ways in which host organs help the breast cancer metastases to grow.

"By the time a woman presents with metastatic breast cancer, it is usually too late too help," explains Dr. Shoukat Dedhar, BC Cancer Agency senior scientist and project leader. "However, there is no reason why this should be the case. The experimental models proposed in this study will identify new molecular therapeutic and diagnostic target specific for the growth of breast cancer metastases in different organs. This may result in the development of specific drugs against these targets."

The possibility of controlling metastatic growth in specific organs hasn't been the focus of research or treatment, due to a lack of understanding about the genes and proteins that drive the growth of breast cancer cells in those organs. In this study, each of the researchers will be investigating new ways to understand why breast cancer cells thrive in the microenvironment of certain organs. The program is designed to generate interactions between the researchers, resulting in the acceleration of novel therapeutic and diagnostic strategies for the control of breast cancer.

Metastatic disease can sometimes respond well to treatment, and may go into remission. However, in this phase of disease, the treatment goal is to extend life as long as possible with the best quality of life possible.

The molecular events that lead to metastatic spread are poorly understood, and there are two main reasons for this: technological limitations and the lack of suitable models for study. In the past few years, however, there have been significant gains in the development of new technologies at the atomic, molecular and macromolecular levels) and in live imaging techniques.

This program is a collaboration of the BC Cancer Agency, an Agency of the Provincial Health Services Authority; The University of British Columbia, and Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Sciences Centre. The team is being led by Dr. Shoukat Dedhar, BC Cancer Agency. Co-investigators are Dr. Christopher Overall and Dr. Calvin Roskelley of The University of British Columbia; and Dr. Arun Seth, Sunnybrook and Womens College Health Sciences Centre in Toronto.

CBCRA's special grant competition for New Approaches to Metastatic Disease in Breast Cancer was created to encourage and support the generation of multidisciplinary teams, possibly at different sites, who will use new technologies and/or innovative approaches to develop preclinical models to understand metastasis.

For more information, please contact:
Nicole Adams
BC Cancer Agency
Tel: 604.877.6272
Pager: 604.641.5167
Email: nadams@bccancer.bc.ca

Hilary Thomson
University of British Columbia
Tel: 604822.2644
Email: hilaryt@exchange.ubc.ca