Oncology

Every day, members of our community receive a life-altering diagnosis: lung, esophageal, stomach, colorectal or breast cancer.

At the Montreal General Hospital, our teams combine innovative surgical techniques, laboratory research and personalized treatment to offer patients the best possible care. Thanks to the support of our donors, our researchers are able to push the limits of medicine and improve the effectiveness of treatments for cancer patients. Thank you for your generosity!

Dr. Christine Legler

Elaine T. & Charles H. Peters Award in Medical Oncology

The focus of my research efforts has been to increase the safety of chemotherapy administration by reducing the likelihood of prescription errors. We have over 120 different chemotherapy regimens in use, and each of these regimens has its unique requirements for administration and timing. We have developed a new prescription process, with built in safeguards. I am happy to report that over 100 of our prescriptions have been converted to our new prescription process. As a result, our new prescriptions are clearer and safer. The new prescribing process has been a great success and is appreciated by all members of our treatment team (physicians, pharmacists and nurses), including our trainees.

Dr. Derek Rosenzweig

Henry and Margaret Johnson Award in Oncology

The goal of my research program is to develop novel therapeutic interventions for musculoskeletal tissue regeneration, as well as repair of critical-sized tissue defects following tumour resection or trauma surgery. I develop 3-D microenvironment models for drug/material screening and tissue engineering platforms to support pre-clinical studies. The work is a progression of my research in musculoskeletal tissue engineering, 3-D printing, and development of nanoparticle/hydrogel drug carriers. This program has the following focus: development of 3-D culture systems to mimic solid tumour microenvironments; development of nanoparticle and scaffold carriers for anti-cancer drug delivery; and development of biomaterials for tissue repair/regeneration.

Dr. Michael Sebag

Stewart Fellowship in Research/Clinical Haematology & Oncology

My focus is in a rare cancer called multiple myeloma. I have set up a clinical practice at the MUHC where dedicated physicians, nurses, data managers and study coordinators all see patients with this disease. We offer comprehensive and multidisciplinary care as well as state-of-the-art clinical trials that are not available anywhere else in the province. In addition to database management, I have also set up a clinical trials group whose focus is to initiate, manage and conduct clinical trials in myeloma. We currently collaborate with other national centres in our database function as well as in a number of genomic-based research projects. I have also initiated national clinical trials involving over 100 patients across Canada, offering them therapies that outside of this context they would not be likely to receive.

Dr. Norma Ybarra

Simone & Morris Fast Award for Oncology

The main objective of my academic program is to improve the efficiency of radiation therapy to treat cancer patients, and also to reduce the side effects caused by this type of therapy, which is one of the most widely used therapies to treat cancer. I am also interested in learning more about how cancer cells feed and manage to proliferate and invade other parts of the body, knowing more about their fuel dependencies will help to attack them more precisely and eliminate them better. Research has shown that the energy demands of cancer cells are different than the energy demands from normal cells. I am interested in understanding and learning more about these differences. In order to proliferate and survive cancer cells use different energy sources and have higher energy requirements than normal cells. In my program, we aim to better understand these differences and exploit them, with the finality of making cancer cells more sensitive to radiation therapy.

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