Dr. David Uehling shares the personal impact of his successful work in cancer research, as part of OICR’s ‘Cancer Research Changed My Life’ campaign.

Cancer research changed my life because I was lucky enough to be a part of a team that discovered a drug that impacted cancer patients.

I remember being thrilled one day when I was talking with a former colleague. She was telling me that the drug we worked on together was “melting” the tumours of patients.

Not only that, but she told me a story that was even more heartwarming.

This drug was being tested in Australia, where there was this surfer who got metastatic melanoma – a dreadful disease. They had to give up surfing and essentially were on their deathbed.

Then, they received the drug and were able to recover and go back to surfing.

When you hear a story like that, knowing how hard it was to discover the drug, and then to see ultimately the impact – not just in an abstract way, but on a real patient. It was just the thrill of a lifetime, and one that I don’t know how you can replicate in any other way.

Seeing this drug and how it changed this one person’s life was good enough in itself. But it’s also continuing to be used by patients worldwide.

I can get out of bed in the morning every day and know the drug is helping a patient. It just makes me feel like the research I’ve been involved with was all worthwhile. It has changed my life because I know that it’s changing so many other people’s lives.

Dr. David Uehling is a scientist and Interim Scientific Lead of Therapeutic Innovation and Drug Discovery at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research. The focus of his research is the design and synthesis of small molecules for cancer drug discovery.