Grant: CIHR New Investigator

It is estimated that the individual lifetime risk of developing cancer is 1-in-3 and death is 1-in-5. These grim statistics are a sobering reminder of the critical need to develop more effective ways to cure cancer. Current methods to treat childhood medulloblastoma are highly invasive with poor long-term quality-of-life including substantial neurocognitive deficits and familial hardship. Similarly, the prognosis of patients afflicted with malignant glioma is abysmal with a death usually occurring within 14 months of diagnosis. Despite highly invasive surgical, radiation and chemotherapeutic strategies, malignant glioma is considered an incurable disease. The targeted use of compounds that modulate DNA repair enzymes to affect tumour cell killing is an emerging tool in cancer chemotherapeutics. Studies have shown that the brain is especially susceptible to dysregulation of the DNA damage repair response, however; the biology of the associated DNA repair pathways and the function of the key enzymes remain poorly understood. I will identify mechanisms that selectively modulate cellular DNA repair activity in brain tumours to increase the efficacy of frontline radio- and chemotherapeutic drugs. My research findings will improve current cancer treatment strategies, patient survival and quality-of-life.