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Cancer Research Changed My Life: Iain’s story

Iain Bancarz explains how a career in bioinformatics at OICR has changed his life and given him the opportunity to help others.

I started my career in computer science. With a PhD in computer science, I had many career options. 

I decided to get into bioinformatics because it was taking off shortly after I finished my PhD. It was very exciting — lots of opportunities, lots of great work being done. 

It was good, but it was a little bit abstracted. It was a little bit separate from immediate applications. 

So I began thinking about cancer research. Also, I wanted to get into this field for more personal reasons. 

Like many people, I have a personal connection to cancer. My uncle passed away about 10 years ago. He was quite young — he was only in his 50s and he left behind three children in their 20s. So he got to see his kids grow up, but his grandkids have never got to meet him. 

I can identify with that because I never met one of my own grandparents because he too passed away from cancer.

Working in cancer research is an opportunity to give something back, to help people see their grandkids grow up or to meet their grandparents when they otherwise might not have been able to. 

This career change involved relocation for me because I’d spent a lot of my career in the UK. The reason I moved specifically to Toronto is because of the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research because I’d heard about it from colleagues. I’d heard it was a good place and it was doing good work. 

It really did change my life. And here I am now. I love living in this city and doing the work that I do. And I really am happy and proud to be with such great colleagues because everyone here knows that we are working to help people with cancer.

Dr. Iain Bancarz is a computational biologist and manager of the Clinical Genome Interpretation team at OICR. He is originally from Edmonton, lived much of his life in the UK, returned to Canada in 2018 and has worked for OICR since then. He loves cycling and once did a sponsored bike ride from Cambridge, England to Paris, France to raise funds for cancer research.

AI-generated genomes could accelerate precision medicine without compromising patient confidentiality

OncoGAN generates simulated genomes that can be used to train genomic analysis tools without the confidentiality concerns associated with real genomes.

A new AI system that creates simulated cancer genomes could reshape the tools used to analyze tumours, helping bring about more accurate cancer diagnosis and ultimately more effective treatments.

OncoGAN was developed by researchers at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR) and the University of Toronto and is described in a new Cell Genomics paper.

It uses generative AI to simulate realistic tumour genomes across eight different types of cancer, including breast, prostate and pancreatic cancers. These synthetic genomes can simulate realistic patterns of genetic alterations, and can be used to benchmark genomic testing and improve the algorithms that make ‘precision oncology’ possible.

Analyzing tumour genomes and the variations within their DNA has enabled new discoveries about how cancer develops, leading to a surge of cutting-edge tests and medicines. It is the cornerstone of precision oncology, where cancer treatment is personalized to the unique biology of a patient’s tumour.

But the algorithms used to analyze genomes are limited because they have been trained on a limited set of cancer genomes, relatively few of which are publicly available. The most commonly used tools were trained on a few dozen legacy genomes, and can’t fully capture the necessary biological diversity. While more recent genome sequencing data exists, access is often restricted due to concerns around the confidentiality of the patients they were sampled from.

“With OncoGAN, we are creating realistic genomes out of nothing, with no connection to any real person, yet they have a huge amount of value scientifically,” says Dr. Lincoln Stein, Scientific Director (Acting) at OICR, Professor of Molecular Genetics at the University of Toronto, and senior author of the paper. “These synthetic genomes don’t contain any personal health information, and so they can be shared without limitation.”

Beyond privacy, another advantage of OncoGAN’s synthetic genomes is that their exact ‘ground truth’ is known. A genome’s ground truth is its full, error-free DNA sequence with all genomic variants identified. It is nearly impossible to know the ground truth of real-life genomes because they are so complex and sequencing technology is limited. This means that current genome analysis tools could be flawed, because there may have been trained on flawed data.

Dr. Ander Díaz-Navarro

By generating genomes from scratch, OncoGAN gives researchers fully known, verified DNA sequences that can enable better, more precise genomic testing and analysis.

“Knowing the ‘ground truth’ of the genomes means they can be used to benchmark new algorithms with full knowledge of that the correct answer is,” says Dr. Ander Díaz-Navarro, Postdoctoral Fellow at OICR and first author of the paper.

With better, more accurately trained tools to analyze cancer genomes, Stein says scientists could unlock more critical insights with the potential to transform cancer care.

“The more we know about the biological factors that drive cancer, the better equipped we are to detect it as early as possible, treat it more effectively, and even prevent it altogether,” Stein says.

OncoGAN is publicly available for download. Stein, Díaz-Navarro and colleagues have also generated 800 simulated genomes, which are available with open access and are already being used to train analysis tools in Stein’s lab.

Study reveals young-onset breast cancer risk for women taking hormone therapy

A global collaboration highlights the need for personalized approaches for treating various conditions involving fluctuating hormone levels.

An international study published in The Lancet Oncology is the largest and most comprehensive to highlight the links between hormone therapy and the risk of breast cancer in women under the age of 55.

Researchers pulled together data from 13 cohort studies across North America, Europe, Asia and Australia — including The Canadian Study of Diet, Lifestyle and Health, co-led by OICR’s Dr. Victoria Kirsh — as part of a large collaboration known as the Premenopausal Breast Cancer Collaborative Group. They found one type of hormone therapy increased women’s risk of early-onset breast cancer, while another may reduce their risk.

Hormone therapy is prescribed to manage symptoms related to menopause or following gynecological surgeries like the removal of the uterus (hysterectomy) or the ovaries (oophorectomy), as well as other conditions affecting hormones levels.

Dr. Victoria Kirsh

Previous research had found links between hormone therapy and breast cancer risk in women above 55 — who more likely to be taking hormone therapy. But premenopausal women also face symptoms caused by fluctuating hormone levels.

“Symptoms necessitating hormone therapy aren’t confined to post-menopausal women,” says Kirsh, who is Interim Director of the OICR-hosted Ontario Health Study. “They can happen to peri-menopausal and younger women, who may then consider hormone therapy, so it’s important they understand the risks involved.”

Between the 13 cohorts, the study analyzed data from 459,476 women ages 16 to 54, about 15 per cent of whom reported having used hormone therapy.

They found dramatically different risks of breast cancers depending on the type of hormone therapy taken. Women who took a combination of estrogen and progesterone saw their risk of young-onset breast cancer jump by 18 per cent, while women who took estrogen alone saw their risk of young-onset breast cancer reduced by 14 per cent.

The risk of young-onset breast cancer among women taking estrogen and progesterone was particularly high for triple-negative disease compare to other subtypes.

Kirsh says the results largely mirror the risks for women over 55.

“The takeaway here is that we need personalized approaches to menopausal symptom management,” Kirsh says. “When women consider taking hormones, particularly combinations of estrogen and progesterone (which is necessary for women with an intact uterus to counteract the increased risk of endometrial cancer associated with estrogen-only therapy), they need to weigh the benefits of symptom relief against the associated risks of breast cancer.”

New PanCuRx Co-Lead aims to bring latest pancreatic cancer innovations to patients

Clinician Scientist Dr. Robert Grant will help lead OICR’s signature pancreatic cancer program into next phase.

Dr. Robert Grant recently became Clinical Co-Lead of OICR’s cutting-edge pancreatic cancer research program, PanCuRx, following the retirement of Dr. Steven Gallinger. As a Clinician Investigator at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre (PM), Grant treats patients with pancreatic and biliary tract cancers and conducts research into integrating Big Data and AI technologies into clinical decision making.

Grant works out of the Wallace McCain Centre for Pancreatic Cancer at PM, which collaborates extensively with the PanCuRx program on clinical trials. He joined OICR News for a chat in which he explained his journey from studying economics to testing drugs on patient-cell derived organoids.

Can you tell us about how you became interested in medicine and research and pancreatic cancer in particular?

When I was completing my undergraduate degree in economics and trying to figure out what I wanted to do, I had been volunteering at the cancer centre in London, and it was a really informative experience. It was inspiring to see everyone there working to help people with cancer, and in addition, my grandfather had cancer at the time. I didn’t know much about oncology, but I decided to pivot my studies to try and get into medical school. To get the necessary prerequisites, I pursued my MA in economics and was successfully accepted to medical school at the University of Toronto.

During my first month there, I was connected with Dr. Steven Gallinger. I heard he was doing cool research, in particular exome sequencing, which was a brand new technology. I remember doing a PubMed search for ‘exome’ and there only being 20 or so papers. It was super interesting to me and Steve’s passion for pancreatic cancer research really rubbed off on me. It was the right place, the right time, I liked the new technology that nobody really understood, and I had some statistical background to bring to the table. I really never looked back from there. 

How does that background in economics play into your work?

I think in many ways, when I was studying economics, it was at the forefront of Big Data and statistical analysis. A lot of the innovative techniques were coming from the economics world which I found interesting, and now Big Data and its analysis are part of fields like medicine and genomics. Economics provided me with a solid foundation for applying these techniques to pancreatic cancer. In addition, I think there’s a broader way of thinking in economics that has probably stayed with me.

Can you tell us about your work as a clinician-investigator? 

As a medical oncologist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, I mostly see people with pancreatic and biliary cancers, many of whom enrol in our innovative clinical trials testing new therapies and other technologies. I also oversee the pancreatic cancer genetics and screening program. Preventing pancreatic cancer remains a central challenge for us, but today, genetics is high impact, since when we find a genetic cause of a pancreatic cancer, we’re able to prevent other cancers throughout a whole family. 

This clinical work blends nicely with what our team at PanCuRx does from a research perspective and my personal lab, which is focused primarily on applications of AI and machine learning in the clinic. These applications include integrating different data types such as electronic health records, wearables and genomic data to improve decision making when it comes to treatment and supportive care. For example, in a recent paper in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, we showed how an AI could help get palliative care to those who need it most. In the end, the goal is to improve outcomes and quality of life.

What are the barriers to getting these tools into the clinic?  

I think all the ingredients are there, but we haven’t made the meal yet, if that makes sense. The algorithms we have are extraordinarily capable and there’s no doubt in my mind that if applied appropriately to the right situation, that they’d have a major impact. However, data is always an issue. We need to have appropriate safeguards and privacy, but we also need a way to let people who want to contribute their data to AI research do so. By sharing their data, people are helping make these models even more useful. We are making progress in this area, but there is still a lot of work to do.

Also, there is still the question of integrating them into routine clinical practice. We need to map out the complex process of providing pancreatic cancer care and think about the people involved in it. Can we embed these tools into existing practices, or do we need to update our practices more fundamentally? How are we going to measure their impact? Some of these technologies, such as reasoning language models, are poised to have broad impacts on care, so these are the complicated questions we need to be asking. I think that these issues represent the ‘last mile’ to clinical adoption, but I am happy to say that there is a lot of good work going on in this area.

What’s it like being part of PanCuRx and OICR?

I’m really grateful to be a part of this community. OICR has been integral to the success we’ve had so far in our pancreatic cancer research, owing in large part to the Institute being a world-leading genomics powerhouse, thanks to the efforts of Dr. Trevor Pugh and his group, working closely over many years with the co-lead of PanCuRx, Dr. Faiyaz Notta. The technologies available at OICR powered our first wave of discoveries and the new technologies being developed here are allowing us to build upon them and continue to innovate.

In terms of PanCuRx, I am proud of the program’s achievements so far and excited about the foundation they provide our group with going forward. We had the COMPASS trial which proved that you can indeed get rapid high-quality genomic data on a metastatic pancreatic cancer using technologies like whole-genome and transcriptome sequencing and laser capture microdissection, and that this data can improve care. We also have the on-going Prosper-PANC trial which is enabling us to evaluate this approach across Ontario.

Building on the COMPASS trial, we recently completed the PASS-01 trial, led by Dr. Jennifer Knox at the McCain Centre for Pancreatic Cancer with Dr. Elizabeth Jaffee from John Hopkins and Dr. David Tuveson from Cold Spring Harbor. This was an international study that evaluated the two standard forms of chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer in a randomized clinical trial. The results of this trial are allowing us to use biology to help in making the key clinical decision of who should get what treatment. OICR’s sequencing expertise and the other scientific specialties provided by our collaborators really allowed us to dig into this question like never before.

Is there anything going in the program right now that excites you in particular?

It’s the fact that we have really branched out across the spectrum of disease. We are working on tests for early detection, have trials in the surgical and radiotherapy spaces and there continues to be a deep focus on biomarkers to help guide treatment in all of our research. The NeoPancONE trial, which was presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology conference last month and showed that chemo before surgery is beneficial in some subtypes of pancreatic cancer, is a great example of this.

From a more personal perspective, I am really excited about one trial I am leading from a clinical perspective, called ADOPT. In this trial, we are taking cells from a given patient’s tumour and growing living models of that tumour, called organoids, outside of the body. We will then be able to test many different drugs on them and see which ones the patient’s cancer is sensitive to, including drugs we may not normally use. The science is being led by Faiyaz and his team as part of PanCuRx. We hope that this approach can provide patients with treatment options that they didn’t have before, and on top of that, it will be treatments uniquely suited to their case.

More generally, I see a great momentum in the program and in pancreatic cancer research in general and I am really excited to be a part of it. We have built an amazing team, world-class resources, and capabilities spanning from the bench to the bedside, coordinated by the McCain Centre at PM and PanCuRx at OICR. Together with the incredible opportunities more broadly at OICR, with the network of brilliant people and cutting-edge new technologies, I believe we can use pancreatic cancer as a “launch pad” at OICR and PM, bringing the most exciting innovations rapidly into clinical care to make an impact for this devastating disease.

Using AI to interpret prostate cancer MRIs could reduce radiologist workload and give more patients access

A machine learning tool was able to accurately triage prostate cancer in OICR-supported research.

New research suggests that AI has the potential to improve the efficiency of prostate cancer screening, while also raising important questions about the use of AI in healthcare.

In an OICR-supported study published in Abdominal Radiology, Dr. Masoom Haider and his PhD student Emerson Grabke used a machine learning algorithm to interpret the results of mutiparametric MRI (mpMRI) and simulated its potential use as a triaging tool. They found it could reduce radiologist workload with minimal loss in accuracy.

It’s widely recognized that triaging suspected prostate cancer with mpMRI can spare patients and the health system from unnecessary biopsies. That’s why Cancer Care Ontario recommends all patients at risk of clinically significant prostate cancer get an MRI first, before determining if a biopsy is necessary.

But the increased use of MRI for triaging prostate cancer has put extra pressure on radiologists to interpret the results, which led researchers to wonder if AI could help reduce the added burden.

To answer this question, Haider’s lab trained a model on more than 2800 MRI exams. The AI model used a U-Net based convolutional neural network and combined this with clinical risk factors. The model was then run in a simulation on over 460 patient exams to see what would happen if only cases the deemed concerning were reviewed by the radiologist.

Emerson Paul Grabke

“We looked at how many exams could be triaged by U-Net combined with clinical indicators without needing a radiologist’s report, and how many instances of cancer might be missed with this triaging,” says Emerson Paul Grabke, PhD Candidate in Haider’s lab and first author of the paper.

They found that combining U-Net reading the MRI with prostate cancer risk indicators was able reduce radiologists’ workload by about 12.5 per cent with only a small reduction in the number of missed cancers (3 per cent) and a significant reduction in overcalls by radiologists.

“There is some promise here to potentially reduce healthcare costs and deal with shortages in radiologists, while helping more patients access MRI,” says Haider, Director of the Machine Learning and Radiomics Lab at Sinai Health and Professor of Medical Imaging at the University of Toronto.

But Haider says the study was meant to push the envelope into areas that would likely not be acceptable in the current healthcare environment. It raises important questions about our comfort level relying on AI to make important healthcare decisions.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been touted for its potential to help with clinical decision making, but when and how AI should be used in place of human expertise has been the topic of much debate with human oversight deemed essential.

“We need to have a discussion in the medical community about what level of performance would make this kind of use of AI acceptable — further work is needed,” Haider says.

Haider says these conversations have become even more important as the healthcare system continues to face unprecedented demand. In June, the Ontario government announced it was adding 35 new centres for MRI and CT scans to keep up with increased pressures, which will ultimately means more need for radiologists to review the scans.

“There are interesting opportunities for AI to improve access in situations where it’s harder to get radiologist review — whether that’s late at night in the emergency room or in a remote area of the country,” Haider says. “So, it’s important we get this right.”

New OICR Investigator brings a dynamic approach to uncover the origins of cancer

Dr. Federico Gaiti uses a suite of advanced techniques to study how cancer begins and progresses.

One of OICR’s newest Investigators is bringing together a powerful combination of cutting-edge tools to better understand how cancer develops and spreads.

Dr. Federico Gaiti integrates genetic, epigenetic and spatial genomics approaches with novel computational frameworks to study cancer at the single-cell level, hoping to unlock new ways to diagnose and treat it.

“We combine different types of data to study the changes that occur in cells as they transition toward cancer — not just identifying what those changes are, but also understanding why and how they happen,” says Gaiti, a Scientist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre (University Health Network) and Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto.  

Gaiti’s scientific journey began in Italy, where he was born and raised. After earning his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biology in his home country, he moved to Australia for his PhD studies, followed by postdoctoral research in New York.

As his research evolved from studying non-model organisms during his PhD to focusing on cancer during his postdoctoral training, Gaiti became increasingly interested in the molecular mechanisms driving cancer development. This growing focus led him to Toronto, drawn by its world-class cancer research ecosystem. In 2021, he moved to Canada and established his lab at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre.

Now, three-and-a-half years later, his lab has grown to a team of eight with diverse skill sets, and they have recently celebrated a major milestone: the publication of their first research paper fully conceptualized and executed in Toronto, featured in Developmental Cell.

OICR News spoke with Dr. Gaiti about the new paper, his lab’s broader research goals, and how becoming an OICR Investigator is helping propel his work forward.

In simplest terms, how would you describe your research focus?

We start with a few fundamental questions: How does cancer begin? How does it become more aggressive over time? And how does it develop resistance to treatment? To answer these, we study the changes that occur in individual cells — not only genetic mutations in the DNA (known as somatic mutations), but also non-genetic changes that influence how cells grow, divide, and interact with their environment.

We use cutting-edge tools and integrate multiple layers of data — including genetic, epigenetic, and spatial information — all at the single-cell level. This comprehensive approach allows us to trace the molecular changes that drive cancer development, with the goal of understanding when and how a normal cell becomes cancerous.

What sort of impact do you hope this work has on patients?

By understanding these changes at the cellular and molecular level, we aim to uncover vulnerabilities in the process of cancer development that could be targeted by new, more effective therapies. Gaining insight into these processes at their earliest stages may also lead to the development of diagnostic tests that detect cancer sooner, when it is most treatable.

Your lab just published its first paper. What did you find in that study?

Our study focused on glioblastoma, one of the most aggressive forms of brain cancer. We discovered that invasive glioblastoma cells ‘hijack’ normal brain development programs, behaving like immature brain cells. We believe this helps explain how these cancer cells spread so effectively throughout the brain. Understanding this process could open new ways to target glioblastoma, not just by trying to kill the cancer cells, but by disrupting the developmental pathways they co-opt to invade healthy tissue.

How has becoming an OICR Investigator helped you realize the goals of your research?

Becoming an OICR Investigator helps bring our ideas to life by connecting us with a network of outstanding scientists and providing access to valuable resources and support. This kind of collaboration is essential for driving science forward. As an early-career researcher, I also deeply value the mentorship opportunities, being able to learn from and seek guidance from more experienced investigators is incredibly helpful in navigating challenges and advancing our work.

Cancer Research Changed My Life: Cassandra’s story

Cassandra Bergwerff reflects on how a personal experience led her to work in cancer research.

Cancer research has had an influence on my life for the past decade or so.

It really started when I was 15, and I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. I had a relatively short course of treatment and I was cancer free within a few months.

It was wonderful to be cancer free, but the treatment was really hard because there were a lot of side effects. And then following the treatment, I had a meeting with my oncologist who told me:

“Okay, you’re cancer free now. That’s great, but here are the major side effects you might have long term that we need to look out for. You might get breast cancer, you might get thyroid cancer, you might have heart problems, you might have lung problems, you might have none of those, or all of those. We’ll just kind of keep an eye on you for the rest of your life.”

At 15, that was kind of a lot. So I felt motivated to do something about it. 

When I was looking into university, I picked a program I thought could prepare me to be a cancer researcher because I wanted to work on reducing the short-term and the long-term side effects of cancer treatment.

As I studied, I realized that wasn’t necessarily the path that I wanted to take. I liked different parts of science, and I didn’t necessarily want to be a Principal Investigator in a lab.

But I still ended up here at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research after graduating, and I’m very glad to be here and contribute in some small way to the advancement of cancer research.

It’s so important that this work keeps going, because it makes such a big difference in the lives of so many people.


Cassandra Bergwerff is the Project Lead, Innovation Translation at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, where she has worked for 5 years in a variety of roles. She has a BScH in Biotechnology from Brock University and is currently studying part-time to obtain an MBA from Carleton Unversity. She is a childhood cancer survivor (diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma at age 15) who enjoys spending time with family, reading outdoors, and creating in various mediums.

Cancer Research Changed My Life: Camille’s Story

Camille Leahy talks about the clinical trial that gave her another chance after being told she was out of options.

Cancer research changed my life because without it, I wouldn’t be here today. And without research, I wouldn’t have the opportunity to watch my daughter grow up.

In January of 2020, I was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. I was sent to a cancer centre and did a month of chemotherapy.

Unfortunately, that chemotherapy didn’t work for me, and I was told that I needed a stem cell transplant. That stem cell transplant also failed eight months later. 

I was told that I was out of options.

But I recalled a doctor telling me during the preparation for my stem cell transplant about cell therapies, and one in particular called CAR-T cell therapy.

So when my cancer came back after my failed transplant, I did some research and I found a clinical trial in Ottawa.

From there, my T cells were taken out of my body. They were modified and trained to kill the cancer. These cells stay alive, and if cancer pops up again, they continue to kill it.

I will be four years cancer free this September.


Camille Leahy is a cancer survivor and patient advocate who shares her story to promote accessible clinical trials and innovative treatments across Ontario and Canada.

Cancer Research Changed My Life: Peter’s story

Peter Goodhand talks about how a personal experience with cancer led him to a career as a leader in cancer research.

Cancer research has changed my life in very fundamental ways over the last 30-plus years.

It started, as it does for many people, with a personal experience. In my case, it was my wife in her early 30s being diagnosed with a rare cancer. 

At first, we struggled to find the right diagnosis and the right treatment. Eventually we did, and it worked. 

She got 12 years of life – much longer than would ever have been expected in the beginning. She got to see our children grow up. She got to teach hundreds of other children. But eventually, the treatments didn’t work anymore. And she died after 12 years.

The experience changed me at a very personal level. So, I changed careers and started to get heavily involved with cancer charities, eventually becoming the President and CEO of the Canadian Cancer Society.

Peter Goodhand

Raising money for research, advocating for research, participating in some very strong, rigorous processes by which research was assessed and funded – it let me see firsthand that what we were doing wasn’t just for one family. It was for many. It was impacting Canadians. It was impacting people all over the world. 

When I came to the end of my term at Canadian Cancer Society, I wanted to continue doing just that. One of the things that stuck with me in the early days is the very specialized knowledge my wife had benefited from. 

Both her oncologists had died before she did, and with them most of the knowledge about those rare cancers disappeared. It left me with an enduring sense that we have to make sure that knowledge is shared, it’s available, and it can be analyzed and used broadly. 

That led me to help create a thing called the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health, which has the express purpose to bring genomic knowledge closer to patients in a way that can impact real care for all citizens of the world.

Peter Goodhand is a leader in the global health sector, holding senior executive and board member positions in the health research advancement community. He currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer of the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH).

Cancer Research Changed My Life: Kathy’s story

Kathy Smith describes her experience on a clinical trial to treat her late-stage breast cancer.

Cancer changed my life, but cancer research saved it. 

Following a two-year suspicion-to-decision interval, I was diagnosed with late-stage breast cancer and not given very good odds to even see a fifth anniversary.

I got surgery with two different regimes of chemotherapy. I also had a month of daily radiation at the end of all of that, which took nine months.

I was to take hormonal therapy tamoxifen for five more years. About two years in, I developed a serious side effect with tamoxifen. I was switched to a new type of hormonal therapy called aromatase inhibitors as part of a clinical trial.

I was very fortunate that the trial was offered right in Thunder Bay, so I did not have the physical and financial burden of having to travel.

I believe that taking part in that research trial moved science forward. Aromatase inhibitors are now part of standard of care. I feel very happy and proud that I was part of having that happen. 

Taking part in this cancer trial changed my outcome. I’m still here 20 years later and have been extremely grateful that I was able to watch my six grandchildren grow up, my four children succeed in getting married and having their jobs. 

I have my life back and I believe I owe it to taking part in that research trial. 

And now on the silver lining is that I have become a very active patient advisor in with cancer research.

Kathy Smith is a cancer survivor and a patient partner in cancer research and care, who is actively involved in projects as part of OICR’s Patient Community, the Canadian Cancer Clinical Trials Network (3CTN), as well as other organizations.