Grant: CIHR New Investigator

Surgery is one of the most important steps in curative cancer treatment. Most patients with solid tumors have an operation to remove the tumor, but for many patients the cancer will come back, often spreading to distant organs. My research and that of others has shown that surgery increases the spread of cancer to distant sites by weakening the immune system. Despite this, patients do not get immune boosting treatment to prevent cancer spread. My research is focused on understanding how immune cells are involved in the spread of tumor cells after surgery so that more effective and less toxic treatments can be given to patients around the time of their operation. In this proposal, I will study how surgery increases the amount of suppressor cells in the body, how suppressor cells impair natural killer immune cells, how natural killer cells are weakened following surgery and how novel immunotherapies can target these immune cells and prevent cancer recurrence in order to improve cancer survival.