A Breakthrough in Local Brain Cancer Research

By Cancer Foundation on July 20 / 2018

Thanks to the generosity of local donors, we are coming much closer to a new, made-in-Ottawa cancer therapy. Local researcher Dr. Ian Lorimer has developed a new approach to treating a deadly type of brain cancer, and it is now moving to the next phase in testing.

Dr. Lorimer specializes in glioblastoma multiforme, an aggressive form of brain cancer that is very difficult to treat. With current treatments, many patients with glioblastoma only survive an average of 16 to 18 months. But thankfully, Dr. Lorimer and his team were recently able to characterize the molecule responsible for this type of cancer’s ability to grow, and then developed a new strategy to counter it using neural stem cells.

In this approach, designer stem cells are created from a patient’s skin cells and deliver an engineered protein to glioblastoma cells, causing them to die off. Dr. Lorimer is very optimistic about this new approach and says that funding from local events and donors has helped to make this new discovery possible. Donations have also allowed his team to acquire a reliable collection of cell cultures to work with, ensuring they always have the resources they need to test therapeutic approaches.

Unfortunately, there’s still lots of work ahead so we can see a day when no one will succumb to brain cancer. But excellent scientists worldwide and here in our community are working hard every day to bring us closer to this reality.

If you’d like to read more detailed information about some of Dr. Lorimer’s research, follow the link below.

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