Grant: Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship Program

Esophageal cancer is a lethal cancer with 5-year survival rate of 16%. Major efforts have concentrated on treating advanced stage diseases without significantly improving overall survival. Further, complications associated with surgical resection and tumour recurrences compromise quality of life and shorten survival. This project proposes a holistic strategy to treat patients while they can still be well managed by developing a state-of-the-art endoscopically applied hydrogel device to: stop bleeding and prevent stricture to accelerate wound healing after surgery; deliver targeted precision drugs locally to increase treatment efficacy and avoid systemic toxicity; and eliminate residual cancers to prevent recurrence. The successful development of the hydrogel device will transform the treatment strategy for early-stage esophageal cancer, enhance patient post-surgical care, and reduce the economic burden of cancer management on BC health system. In addition, these devices could be therapeutic options for other cancers if loaded with appropriate treatments. For this reason, the impact of this work may reach far beyond improving outcomes for esophageal cancer and other gastrointestinal cancers.