Grant: Master's Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

Bone, and in particular the spinal column, is the most common site for the distant spread (metastasis) of many cancers, including breast cancer. Metastatic disease in the spine can significantly affect patient quality of life due to chronic pain, pathological fractures and neurological complications. Currently, standard treatment options for spinal metastases include bisphosphonate (BP) and radiation (RT) therapies. While treatment with BP and RT are often beneficial, they have not been able to produce positive responses in all patients. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a novel and promising minimally invasive drug-light cancer treatment that has been shown to successfully destroy metastatic tumour tissue in the spine. Previous studies utilizing a preclinical breast cancer spinal metastasis model demonstrated that PDT alone reduces bone loss and when used in conjunction with BP, enhances short-term bone strength (up to one week post-treatment). However the short term combined effects of PDT and RT and the longer-term effects of PDT-combined treatments on vertebral bone are still unknown. The proposed Master's fellowship aims to study the short and long-term structural effects of photodynamic therapy (PDT) alone and in combination with current clinical treatments (RT and BP) for spinal metastasis arising from breast cancer. Structural integrity of the spine will be evaluated using multimodal imaging, histology and mechanical testing. Knowledge gained from this study will be disseminated through collaborating cancer researchers and clinicians at the Ontario Cancer Institute and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. This study will generate important information crucial to substantiating the use of PDT as an alternate clinical therapy for spinal metastases, particularly in patients for whom previous treatments have failed.