More than half a million dollars from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada to research precision medicine, chemotherapy alternatives, and zebrafish genes
TORONTO, Sept. 5, 2023 /CNW/ - Canadian researchers exploring precision medicine with immunotherapy – including alternatives to chemotherapy for infants, and how a zebrafish gene could help with inherited bone marrow disorders – have received a total of $600,000 from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada (LLSC) for pediatric blood cancer research innovation.
September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, as well as Blood Cancer Awareness Month.
Dr. Trang Hoang, pediatric blood cancer researcher at the University of Montreal, and a 2023 LLSC grant awardee. (CNW Group/The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Canada)
"Imagine a child getting a therapeutic vaccine instead of enduring a two-year, grueling chemotherapy treatment with immediate and long-term consequences that irreversibly worsen their quality of life," says Dr. Trang Hoang, one of the 2023 recipients of the Pediatric Blood Cancer Research Innovation Grants from LLSC.
To help achieve that alternative to a long course of chemotherapy, she has received $200,000 to identify proteins only found on the surface of leukemic cells, called tumor-specific antigens (TSA) that can be targeted to trigger patients' anti-leukemic defense. "In this era of precision medicine, we can do better" says Dr. Hoang, a researcher at the University of Montreal.
Similarly seeking an alternative to chemotherapy for children – in his case, infants under the age of one with leukemia – Dr. Jean-Sebastien Delisle, at the Hopital Maisonneuve-Rosemount in Montreal, is studying how the sequence of abnormal proteins causing infant leukemia can be used as immune targets.
"We want to identify those proteins and use them as a target to treat infant leukemia with immune cells rather than with toxic chemotherapy," says Dr. Delisle, who has received $200,000 from LLSC.
Dr. Jason Berman, at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, in Ottawa, is working to prevent childhood leukemia before it develops by studying how a gene in zebrafish affects blood production and causes defects in blood cells. "We hope our findings can be used to screen for drugs that can impact blood defects, restore normal blood production and potentially halt leukemia development," says Dr. Berman, who received $199,060.00 from the LLSC this year.
"We are committed to investing in Canada's leading blood cancer researchers conducting vital and innovative investigations," says Nadine Prevost, Business Unit Director - Research and Community Support at LLSC. "We support the research of, and people affected by, 137 types of blood cancer within leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma, myelodysplastic syndromes, and myeloproliferative neoplasms."
LLSC 2023 research investment in total in 2023 includes nearly $5 million for a total of 37 blood cancer researchers – including 14 women – at 21 universities and hospitals in five provinces.
Approximately one-third of expenditures by LLSC each year goes to funding blood cancer research; the rest goes to supporting persons affected by blood cancers – including services delivered coast to coast – public education, fundraising, and operations that match community needs.
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