Congratulations to the recipients of the BC Cancer Foundation (BCCF) 2024 Rising Stars Award competition!

This year’s awardees are: 

Researchers at BC Cancer, the University of British Columbia (UBC), Harvard Medical School and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) have pinpointed what could be the early genetic origins of breast cancer—cancer-like mutations appearing in the cells of healthy women.

Dr. Poul Sorensen is the recipient of the 2024 Doctors of BC Terry Fox Medal, a prestigious award recognizing outstanding individuals who have achieved success in clinical practice, research and/or teaching to advance cancer care. A distinguished scientist at the BC Cancer Research Institute (BCCRI) and professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Dr. Sorensen was selected based on his remarkable contributions to the field of pediatric cancer research and in translating scientific discoveries into clinical practice. 

Despite decades of advancement in treatment, cancer spreading to multiple parts of the body remains one of the biggest challenges facing patients and their health care teams.

This is particularly true for osteosarcoma, the most common bone cancer in children and teenagers. While survival rates are approximately 70 per cent for people with localized disease, there is a high risk of metastatic spread to the lungs, after which the odds of survival fall dramatically to 20 per cent or less.

Dr. Poul Sorensen (Molecular Oncology), with co-investigators Dr. Kevin Hay (Terry Fox Laboratory) and Dr. Wei Li (University of Pittsburgh), received a Project Grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) for their project titled, “Targeting metabolic vulnerabilities in childhood cancers using immunotherapy.”

Dr. Haifeng Zhang (Molecular Oncology), with the support of Dr. Poul Sorensen as mentor, received a young independent investigator grant from the Rally Foundation for Childhood Cancer Research (Rally). 

The award is tied to a project titled, “Immunotherapeutic targeting of IL1RAP in rare pediatric cancers.”

Rally helps fund all levels of promising research initiatives, from science at the bench to translational, and includes fellows, young investigators and independent investigators.

Congratulations to Dr. Zhang on this achievement! 

Dr. Poul Sorensen (Molecular Oncology), with co-investigator Dr. Wei Li (University of Pittsburgh), has been awarded with a pediatric Ewing sarcoma research grant from St. Baldrick's Foundation. 

The Martha’s Better Ewing Sarcoma Treatment (BEST) Grant for All, named after a remarkable teenager who was fighting Ewing sarcoma and passed away in 2022, was awarded to Dr. Sorensen and Dr. Li for a project titled, "Better Ewing Sarcoma Treatment."

BC Cancer 2024 Summer Research Studentship competition, sponsored by the BC Cancer Foundation, supports senior undergraduate university students and/or junior medical or dental students seeking hands-on training in cancer research in British Columbia. These summer studentships may address any discipline of cancer research including clinical, translational, basic, behavioural and population research areas.

The 2024 awardees are:

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Yongjin Park has been named Canada Research Chair in Integrative Causality Inference of Cancer Mechanisms (Tier 2).

A recent study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation found that certain cancer-causing proteins can switch on parts of a person’s genetic material that were previously inactive, potentially contributing to the development and progression of Ewing sarcoma and prostate cancer. This finding helps researchers understand why the environment around a tumour may cause inflammation and suppress the immune system, which can make it challenging to successfully treat solid tumours with immunotherapy.