Grant: CIHR Fellowship

Everyday, about 540 Canadians will be newly diagnosed with cancer. Despite this staggering statistic, majority of individuals will not go on to develop cancer. The following protection is largely contributed by our immune surveillance system. In addition to fighting off bacteria and viruses, our immune system has also evolved to monitor and eliminate cancerous cells. Importantly however, cancerous cells have developed mechanisms to counteract, evade and suppress our immune response. Although the genetic mutations underlying pancreatic cancer are well characterized, it remains a devastating disease. Treatments to date have failed and pancreatic cancer has the lowest five-year survival rate among patients. Better understanding of the dynamic interplay between cancerous cells and immunity will allow us to develop novel targets for pancreatic cancer treatments. Indeed, successful breakthroughs in the treatment of another cancer, melanoma, have come from targeting tumour-induced immune suppression. Therefore, our studies of cancer immune-suppression in the context of genetics will allow us to further harness the natural anti-tumour action of our immune system to combat pancreatic cancer.