Programs

The BC Generations Project, BC’s largest-ever health study, follows a cohort of nearly 30,000 BC participants who volunteer their health information and biological samples to help researchers learn more about how environment, lifestyle and molecular factors contribute to cancer and other chronic diseases.

This program focuses on cervical cancer prevention, primarily HPV-based screening. HPV FOCAL, a landmark BC study was conducted through BC Cancer and the findings continue to be used to evaluate the protection of HPV based screening for cervical cancer prevention. This program conducting ongoing prevalence of HPV in the province and evaluates the impact of HPV vaccination on the prevalence of cervical dysplasia in BC. All projects are conducted in collaboration with the University of British Columbia, Women’s Health Research Institute and the BC Centre for Disease Control.

Over the past five decades, survival rates for children, adolescents, and young adult cancer survivors (CAYACS) have significantly improved, primarily due to advancements in diagnosis and treatment. Despite these improvements, there is still limited understanding of the long-term impacts of cancer on survivors. The CAYACS program aims to address the knowledge gap about long-term outcomes by examining physical and mental health late effects, second cancers, and late mortality.

A program focused on the study of the interaction between susceptibility genes and environmental factors (including lifestyle) in the causation of cancer. The program has conducted an ongoing series of studies examining the interaction between genetic predisposition and environmental and lifestyle factors for non-Hodgkin lymphoma, melanoma, and multiple myeloma, as well as breast, ovarian, prostate, bladder and skin cancers.

Nutrition, Metabolism and Cancer Prevention Program aims to advance the understanding of relationships between diet, nutrition and chronic disease, particularly cancer. Her research primarily uses a population-based approach and innovative methodologies to study metabolic pathways underlying relationships.

The Regier Lab is an innovative program of research focused on the sustainability, value and social impacts of precision medicine. Our research initiatives identify community-defined risks and benefits of precision medicine, its cost-effectiveness, and what policy changes can support the responsible and equitable application of multi-omics. Our research studies estimate preference-based utility and acceptability of multi-omic technologies, as well as include value for money assessments.

What is the BC Cancer Immunotherapy Program?

The vision of the BC Cancer Immunotherapy Program is to create and clinically translate the next generation of cancer immunotherapies. Our goal is to develop safe, potent and cost-effective immunotherapies that can be deployed against a broad range of cancers. 

Dr. Steidl and Scott teams have successfully won a large-scale applied research project grant worth $11.9 million funded by Genome Canada, Genome BC, Canadian Institutes of Health Research and BC Cancer Foundation to study the genome biology of relapsed lymphoid cancers. Our large-scale, pan-Canadian study was launched to discover novel, actionable markers of relapsed lymphoma from which clinically relevant assays can be developed.

Diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is an aggressive form of B-cell non -Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) and the most common type of NHL. With its heterogeneous nature in clinical behavior, morphology and immunophenotype, reliable biomarkers are needed to accurately categorize the tumor subtypes. Recently, the team led by Dr. Scott has revealed the location of MYC rearrangement at base pair resolution by performing targeted sequencing of MYC, BCL2, BCL6 and IG loci.

Primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma (PMBCL) is a rare disease, accounting for 2~-3% of all non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHL). Based on its clinical and pathological features, it is recognized as a distinct entity by the current World Health Organization Classification. Historically, PMBCL was considered as a subtype of DLBCL based on morphology and immunophenotype. The typical clinical presentation as a large mass in the anterior mediastinum of children/youth with female predominance is a critical diagnostic component in PMBCL.

This team grant is a collaborative effort, whichere experts in lymphoid cancer biomarkers and tumor microenvironment, hematology and cancer genomics jointly aim to understand and overcome treatment failure in lymphoid cancers. The team will identify and validate target-specific molecular tests characterizing genetic changes and molecular pathways which provide the preclinical rationale for novel drug development.

Our research group develops computational methods for the analysis of high throughput cancer genomics data.  We use machine learning techniques to develop statistical models to infer genomic abnormalities from next generation sequencing data and high-density genotyping arrays.  Dr. Andrew Roth and Dr. Sohrab Shah work with Dr. David Huntsman and Dr. Sam Aparicio who lead ovarian cancer and breast cancer research respectively at BC Cancer, part of the Provincial Health Services Authority.

The team, led by Dr. François Bénard, has extensive experience in the pre-clinical development of radiotracers for PET/CT imaging, their translation to the clinic, and clinical trial design/execution. They have developed several new radiopharmaceuticals targeting tumour receptors, notably peptides and small molecule ligands. Dr. Bénard initiated the program that developed cyclotron production of 99mTc, now in clinical trials at multiple sites in Canada. A state-of-the-art cyclotron and molecular imaging facility was also established at BC Cancer.

OVCARE formed when a group of physicians and scientists teamed up with the vision of enhancing ovarian cancer research in BC in order to improve outcomes for ovarian cancer patients.

Acute leukemia remains a devastating disease, especially in adults, with survival rates below 50%. Even for children, where rates are higher, intense chemotherapy often leads to long-term health challenges. The urgency to understand the molecular intricacies of leukemia cells, particularly their differences from normal hematopoietic cells, is paramount.