Conference: Canadian Cancer Research Conference, Nov 4-7, 2017, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Conference Highlight: The conference highlighted advances in Canadian cancer research across a broad spectrum of topics from molecular research to patient care.
Conference Summary: The Canadian Cancer Research Conference is the largest conference focusing on cancer research by Canadian scientists. The conference was held over three days and consisted of five concurrent scientific sessions, which were attended by over a thousand researchers. It was a great opportunity to meet other researchers in the field and explore possible collaborations in a wide range of topics from genomics and policy to new approaches to health care.
The conference highlighted the significant progress made in immunotherapy. Multiple groups showed promising results using tumor infiltrating lymphocytes or cytotoxic T cells to target and destroy hard-to-treat tumours. This type of therapy has become the standard of care for patients with high-risk melanoma. However, some melanoma tumors develop resistance to the therapy. Dr. Marcus Butler from Princess Margaret Cancer Centre showed that these immunologically non-reactive tumors can be transformed and targeted using several methods including adoptive cell therapy.
A number of groups presented their progress on hypoxia research by demonstrating how hypoxia influences tumor development. One notable study revealed that hypoxia can transform an adenocarcinoma into a lethal neuroendocrine carcinoma. Several genes were found to be key regulators of this process and may provide potential therapeutic targets for stopping the development of this type of cancer.
Overall, this conference was a great exhibition of the current state of Canadian cancer research. It was very promising and uplifting to see the progress Canadian scientists have made in translational and clinical research and how diligently they are working to develop more effective cancer treatments.