B.C. researchers fight cancer with nuclear medicine research

A UBC-led team of Canadian researchers has received a $23.7 million in federal funding to develop a radiopharmaceutical therapy to help treat certain cancers.

The university announced the funding in a news release Thursday.

Unlike traditional radiation therapy that only targets select locations in the body – making it tough to treat cancers that spread to multiple parts of the body – radiopharmaceutical therapy aims to treat deposits of cancer cells throughout the patient’s body.

“This is the holy grail of cancer treatment," explained principal investigator Dr. François Bénard, professor of radiology and senior executive director of the BC Cancer Research Institute, in the news release.

"These disease-targeting molecules circulate throughout the body, binding tightly to cancer cells in order to eliminate them with a highly localized blast of energy.”

A key challenge in this research is to overcome a global shortage of radioisotopes, specifically actinium-225. An amount of that element equivalent to only a few grains of sand is enough to treat up to 2,000 patients a year, but securing even that much of it is difficult.

UBC’s partner in this research is TRIUMF – Canada’s particle accelerator centre – which hopes to help fill this gap.

“TRIUMF is delighted to leverage its laboratory space and capabilities to ramp up and provide large quantities of rare isotopes like actinium-225, and to collaborate in the critical research taking place,” said Dr. Paul Schaffer, director of TRIUMF’s life sciences division, in the news release.

The project aims to design biomolecules that target a range of different cancer types, including prostate, pancreatic, breast and blood cancers, according to the news release.

“Radiopharmaceutical design is intrinsically modular, which gives us the flexibility to customize each drug to a specific disease target,” said co-principal investigator Dr. Caterina Ramogida, assistant professor of chemistry at Simon Fraser University, who also works for TRIUMF.

“Using this adaptable approach, we have the potential to develop an arsenal of different drugs tailored for various types of cancer.”

Cancer remains the leading cause of death in Canada, with one in two Canadians expected to be diagnosed with it during their lifetime, according to the news release. The team of researchers aims to bring drug candidates into their clinical trials in coming years to speed up adoption of radiopharmaceutical therapy in Canada.

“We will establish Canada as a world leader in the field of nuclear medicine and ensure Canadians and patients around the world have access to these innovative medicines sooner,” said Bénard. “These radiopharmaceuticals can significantly improve the quality of life and life expectancy of patients with cancer, particularly metastatic cancers, many of which are currently untreatable.”