dgarner@bccrc.ca

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Research Interests:

Dr. Garner´s research interests have primarily focused on the detection of early cancer, especially mass screening for pre-invasive disease. Central to this work is the development of objective image cytometry based means to grade early disease and to exploit this scale for differential diagnosis and, more importantly, for prognosis by measuring disease progression versus regression. Commercialization of new technology as the means to permit its wide adoption in clinical practice is of particular interest. That a diagnostic assay works technically as merely a necessary, but certainly not a sufficient condition for its clinical acceptance. The many intertwined issues of health economics, test accuracy and predictive value, test acceptability to patient and physician, harmony with current practice, speed, etc., are usually of equal or greater importance than the technical details of the specific test. Dr. Garner´s long term goal is to develop and assess practical new screening technologies, partly based on image cytometry of cytological preparations, for the detection of early lung cancer and recurrent bladder cancers. In addition, Dr. Garner is exploring the potential for exploiting the technology for the measurement of malignant potential of low-grade dysplasia of the uterine cervix.