Press release (excerpt):

OTTAWA, Oct. 14, 2011 /CNW/ – Five leading Canadian radiation oncologists receive RAZCER Awards of $22,727 each for novel studies of radiation-drug interactions that have the potential to either protect normal tissues or sensitize tumours, and thus to enhance the effectiveness of radiation therapy for cancer patients. A selection committee of members of the Canadian Association of Radiation Oncology (CARO) selected the 2011 recipients from among a field of 12 applicants. Astrazeneca provides the funds for the RAZCER Award as an educational grant.

Dr. Bassam Abdulkarim, committee chair, explains, “The RAZCER Award program provides our CARO members with a highly-valued source of funding to study drugs or molecular inhibitors, which may or may not include Astrazeneca compounds. In vitro and in vivo pre-clinical studies are eligible, as are correlative studies tagged to Phase 0-III clinical trials.”

The 2011 research initiatives include:

• Dr. Shun Wong of Odette Cancer Centre, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, and his co-investigator, Dr. Georg Bjarnason, medical oncologist, will conduct preclinical studies to determine how the circadian cycle can regulate the brain response after radiation. They will further test if the neuro-hormone melatonin can confer protection against cognitive dysfunction due to the effect of radiation on the brain.
• Dr. Michael Milosevic of Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto is coordinating a combined endeavor by radiation oncologists, medical oncologists and basic cancer researchers to better understand how a particular signaling pathway in cancer cells – the Hedgehog pathway, might influence the curability of cervix cancer with radiotherapy and new targeted drugs. This research is a collaboration with Dr. Helen MacKay (Medical Imaging) and Dr. Richard Hill (UT DRO).

From the AACR:

Report Calls on Congress to Provide Critical Funding Increases for Life-saving Research Supported by the NIH and NCI

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The American Association for Cancer Research will unveil the AACR Cancer Progress Report 2011 at 3:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Sept. 20, during a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. The AACR is the world’s oldest and largest association dedicated to the acceleration of advances in cancer research for the prevention and cure of cancer.

The AACR Cancer Progress Report 2011, released 40 years after the National Cancer Act was signed into law, comes at a critical time – when decades of fundamental knowledge about cancer have led to incredible scientific and technological breakthroughs. Yet, because of the relatively flat funding at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) since 2003, both the momentum gained and future progress of cancer research are now seriously threatened.

“Today, more than any time in history, cancer researchers are maximizing the impact of the fundamental discoveries made over the past 40 years and are translating them into improved patient care. Sustained funding increases for the NIH and NCI are an urgent national priority that will improve the health of Americans and strengthen America’s innovation and economy,” said AACR Immediate Past President Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Ph.D., Nobel Laureate and Morris Herzstein professor of biology and physiology at the University of California, San Francisco.

The AACR Cancer Progress Report 2011 is a call to action for the general public and for lawmakers to intensify their efforts in supporting cancer and biomedical research. Past breakthroughs have resulted in new approaches that are transforming the prevention, detection, diagnosis and treatment of cancer and are ushering in a new era of personalized cancer medicine [read more...]

Photo (L to R):
Dr. Richard Hill, IARR Kaplan Award
Dr. Bernard Cummings, ASTRO Gold Medal
Dr. Bradly Wouters, Breuer Award

UT DRO Education Award winners

• Vanessa Barisic, MRS Clinical Supervision Award
• Amanda Bolderston, Postgraduate Classroom Teaching Award
• Stephen Breen, Postgraduate Classroom Teaching Award
• Lisa Di Prospero, MRS Research Supervision Award
• Marta Evans, MRS Classroom Teacher Award
• Nicole Harnett, CME Award
• Mandy Kohli, MRS Clinical Supervision Award
• Kathy Mah, MRS Guest Lecturer Award
• Michael Milosevic, Postgraduate Mentorship Award
• Cathryne Palmer, Postgraduate Classroom Teaching Award

UT DRO Research Award winners:

• Lisa Barbera, Best Annual Research Performance Award
• Stanley Liu, Outstanding Research Potential Award
• Padraig Warde, Sustained Excellence in Research Award
• Bradly Wouters, Research Leadership Award

Over the ten years since its inception in September 2001, the HDR Brachytherapy program at the Odette Cancer Centre has garnered a lot of attention for its innovation. The program, which treats three to six patients per week, has accomplished two ‘firsts’: the first cancer centre to perform High Dose Rate (HDR) brachytherapy treatment for prostate in one visit, and the first to use ultrasound imaging instead of CT to plan the procedure.

Set apart from other treatments by its minimal invasiveness and ability to deliver the highest dose possible while sparing surrounding organs, HDR treatment is ideal for patients with intermediate disease who may not be interested in or eligible for surgery. Dr. Hans Chung explains “It’s a higher dose, so there’s a higher chance of curing the cancer. Because we can pinpoint the tumour, less radiation is delivered to surrounding areas, so there are fewer side effects. The advantage is that the treatment is minimally invasive, with only temporary placement of needles, and a cure rate comparable to surgery.” Presently, the treatment is given as a boost preceding external beam radiation therapy (EBRT).

Traditional treatment with HDR brachytherapy involved two fractions, or treatments, one week apart in addition to five weeks of external beam radiation therapy. Dr. Gerard Morton, Associate Professor in the UT DRO, explains his interest in treating with only one HDR ‘boost’: “Two fractions worked very well, but the problem was that it meant all our patients had to go through two procedures one week apart. It was not convenient for patients and involved a lot of additional resources.”

With the team’s vision focused on the long-term, they began to research new ways to improve the treatment process and, subsequently, patient outcomes. Dr. Morton explains, “Our real interest was to see if we could come up with a better approach, and instead of having to do two fractions, do one. Instead of five weeks of EBRT, could we get away with a shorter course of radiation? What we’ve done is come up with a novel way of delivering HDR brachytherapy consisting of a single HDR treatment and combining it with three weeks of external beam. We calculated that, in theory, this would be equivalent to what we were giving before. It should have lower acute side effects for the patient and the same or better chance of controlling the cancer.”

Current data for this treatment now dates back five years and supports the hypothesis Dr. Morton and his colleagues put forward a few years ago. He explains, “Data confirms that our new, novel single fraction protocol works very well and very favourably compares with what we, and everybody else, had been doing previously.” Dr. Chung adds, “the disease-free survival rates are very good. There’s more and more data coming out. Recent reports suggest 90% biochemical control rates for intermediate-risk disease.” The novel procedure has since been adopted by many other centres across Canada, the US, and Europe as the standard way of doing HDR brachytherapy for prostate cancer.

In late 2009, the program broke ground for a second time, using ultrasound to both guide the needles and plan the dose: “The patient comes to the operating room, is put under general anesthesia, has needles inserted via ultrasound, and right there and then we create a plan using the same ultrasound images. Treatment is given without having to move the patient. Because the patient isn’t moved, we know the treatment given is very precise and accurate. The average length of time from start to finish, including treatment, is about one and a half hours compared to nearly six hours when we planned using CT images. Since we introduced this, we’ve treated approximately 250 patients. We are prospectively collecting patient quality of life data and outcome data to compare with what we were doing previously.”

The team has no intention of stopping here. Dr. Morton explains that the “next step is to determine if we really need EBRT in addition to HDR and to develop protocols for treatment with HDR only.” There is a lot of excitement about the future of treatment when a patient might come in, undergo a ninety minute procedure in the operating room, and have his cancer completely treated. This is something that Dr. Morton hopes to see come to fruition in the next 18 months: “It’s part of some work we’re doing now. We have a number of pieces in the puzzle, and a number of research projects ongoing looking at different types of ultrasound and MRI imaging to map out the tumour location. Our goal is to put all this information together so we can very precisely identify the timing of brachytherapy, locate the cancer, and selectively boost in that area. With some ongoing clinical trials, we’ll start reducing the amount of external beam we’re giving and hopefully get rid of it all together.”

Check out more feature articles from our 2010-2011 Annual Report. 

Here are some important revisions to note that are related to use of funds:

• Limits removed for stipends paid to trainees from tri-agency grants.
• Changes to eligible expenses for computer and electronic communication to include Computers, modems, and other hardware and specialized software required for the research not normally provided by the institution and with adequate justification. Cellular phones or smartphone devices when they are necessary for data collection, and/or personnel safety reasons with adequate justification.
• Changes to eligible expenses for services and miscellaneous to include Specialized courses with adequate justification.

A summary of the all the changes can be found at http://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/Professors-Professeurs/FinancialAdminGuide-GuideAdminFinancier/TFAGChange-GAFTRevision_eng.asp

The Faculty of Medicine Education and Teaching and Awards Committee reviews proposed nominations for external awards twice annually. To ensure sufficient lead time for adjudication and preparation of nomination dossiers, the internal nomination deadlines are set well in advance of deadlines for final submission. The Education Vice-Deans are now calling for internal nominations for external awards with spring/summer deadlines:

AAMC – Abraham Flexner Award
Description: The Abraham Flexner Award for Distinguished Service to Medical Education is granted annually to an individual for extraordinary contributions to the medical education community. The Flexner Award recognizes the highest standards in medical education and honors individuals whose impact on medical education is national in scope.

AAMC – Alpha Omega Alpha (ΑΩΑ) Robert J. Glaser Distinguished Teacher Awards
Description: The Alpha Omega Alpha Robert J. Glaser Distinguished Teacher Awards were established by the AOA medical honor society in 1988 to provide national recognition to faculty members who have distinguished themselves in medical student education.

OCUFA – Teaching Award
Description: Each year the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations recognizes outstanding teachers and academic librarians in Ontario universities through its Teaching and Academic Librarianship Awards.

STLHE – 3M National Teaching Fellowship
Description: Excellence in teaching over a number of years, principally (but not exclusively) at the undergraduate level.

Please submit nominations electronically to Jeananne Robertson at edudeans@utoronto.ca by end of day on Wednesday, November 30th, 2011.

For additional information visit: http://www.facmed.utoronto.ca/staff/teach/external.htm

Nominations must include:
- the name of the award,
- a summary paragraph or statement explaining why the nominee is suitable for this award (approx. 300 words),
- a current CV for the nominee,
- and a teaching dossier, including a 1 – 2 pp statement describing the nominee’s teaching philosophy*.

*For assistance with writing a statement of teaching philosophy, please see: http://www.teaching.utoronto.ca/topics/documenting-teaching/teaching-dossier/s-t-p.htm

Please do not hesitate to contact me with questions.

Jeananne T. Robertson
Education & Teaching Awards Coordinator
Education Vice-Deans
Faculty of Medicine
University of Toronto
Medical Sciences Building, Rm. 2344
Toronto, ON M5S 1A8
T: 416 946-3921 ♦ F: 416 946-5963
edudeans@utoronto.ca
www.facmed.utoronto.ca/staff/teach.htm