Grant: Project Grant

Glioblastoma is an aggressive type of brain cancer that kills hundreds of Canadians every year. The current treatments (surgery, radiation and chemotherapy) only give small improvements in patient survival. We are proposing to test a new therapeutic strategy. This aims to "repair" a common, acquired genetic defect that causes glioblastoma. We will determine how well this strategy works on its own and in combination with existing therapies. Initially the strategy will be tested in cultured cancer cells that we isolate from glioblastoma patients. We will then test the strategy in animal models; in these, we grow the patient cells in mice in a way that closely mimics the way this cancer behaves in humans. These experiments will determine if this method should go on to testing in clinical trials.