OICR congratulates Drs. John Bell and Ming-Sound Tsao, recipients of the Canadian Cancer Society's 2011 Awards of Excellence in Cancer Research

TORONTO, May 9, 2012 /CNW/ - Dr. Tom Hudson, President and Scientific Director of the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR), congratulated two OICR-affiliated scientists, Drs. John Bell and Ming-Sound Tsao, who were recognized earlier today by the Canadian Cancer Society for their significant contributions to cancer research in Canada.

"Drs. Bell and Tsao have spent their careers dedicated to finding innovative ways to vastly improve treatment options for patients diagnosed with cancer," said Dr. Hudson. "The awards presented today are amongst the highest honours in cancer research in Canada, and I am pleased to congratulate them both on behalf of OICR. We look forward to continuing to work with Drs. Bell and Tsao both here at OICR and on other projects around the province."

Dr. Bell is the recipient of the Robert L. Noble prize for his work in the development and testing of oncolytic virus-based therapies. Dr. Bell is a Senior Scientist based at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI). He is also the leader of OICR's Immuno- and Bio-therapies Program, which coordinates and drives the clinical testing and translation of promising anti-cancer biotherapies being developed in three Ontario research clusters. Working closely together under the leadership of Dr. Bell, the Program's researchers are designing and executing hypothesis testing clinical studies. Their continuing objective is to develop therapeutic cell and/or viral- based strategies for the treatment of cancer.

In 2011 Dr. Bell's research group at OHRI published the results of a groundbreaking clinical trial that was the first in the world to show an intravenously-delivered viral therapy can consistently infect and spread in human tumours without harming surrounding healthy tissues. This was a major step in proving the efficacy of virus-based therapies and in bringing such therapies closer to the clinic.

Dr. Tsao is the recipient of the O. Harold Warwick Prize for his work in significantly advancing the understanding and use of molecular information to improve the treatment of lung cancer. Dr. Tsao is a Senior Scientist at Ontario Cancer Institute, the research arm of University Health Network's Princess Margaret Hospital and he is Director of Translational Research for OICR's Pancreatic Project.

In 2002 OICR's predecessor organization (Ontario Cancer Research Network) funded a three-year study headed by Dr. Tsao that investigated molecular aberrations in the tumours of lung cancer patients. His work provided the first evidence that some patients whose tumours harbour a specific mutation (called a "ras" mutation) are not likely to benefit from chemotherapy post-surgery - thus allowing doctors to better tailor treatment to patients and sparing patients from unnecessary side effects.

Today Dr. Tsao leads an OICR initiative focused on pancreatic cancer called Pancure. This is a multi-disciplinary program that will integrate genomic, drug discovery, biology, pre-clinical and ultimately clinical efforts to develop new treatment approaches for pancreatic cancer, which is one of the most lethal forms of cancer. Pancure brings together teams involved in pancreatic cancer genome analyses (under the auspices of the International Cancer Genome Consortium), innovative screens (Selective Therapies Program led by OICR and the Terry Fox Research Institute), OICR's Early Drug Discovery Program, and the PMH Clinical Trials Consortium.

OICR

OICR is an innovative cancer research and development institute dedicated to prevention, early detection, diagnosis and treatment of cancer. The Institute is an independent, not-for-profit corporation, launched by the Government of Ontario in 2005. The annual budget for OICR, its research partners and collaborators exceeds $160 million. This supports more than 1,500 investigators, clinician scientists, research staff and trainees located at its headquarters and in research institutes and academia across the Province of Ontario. It has research hubs in Hamilton, Kingston, London, Ottawa, Thunder Bay and Toronto. OICR has key research efforts underway in small molecules, biologics, stem cells, imaging, genomics, informatics and bio-computing, from early stage research to Phase III clinical trials. For more information, please visit the website at www.oicr.on.ca

Ontario Institute for Cancer Research
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