Grant: CIHR New Investigator

Most solid tumours are treated with surgery before they spread to other organs. Dr. Auer and others have shown that surgery itself can increase the spread of cancer to distant sites. Despite this, very few treatments are given around the time of surgery because they are too toxic for a recovering patient. A number of changes happen following surgery including increased blood clotting and preventing an overwhelming reaction from the immune system. While these changes are important for patients to heal, they can be exploited by cancer cells, helping them to spread. In this proposal Dr. Auer will find out why surgery helps cancer cells to spread and study how to reverse these effect using novel cancer treatments that can be safely given to patients around the time of surgery. Dr. Auer has developed an animal model where a mouse undergoes surgery followed by an injection of cells to simulate cancer cell spread. Dr Auer will use this model to study the reasons for the spread of cancer after surgery and to find the best combinations of treatments to prevent this from happening. Dr. Auer also has two clinical trials that involve giving treatments around the time of surgery in order to prevent the cancer from coming back. In these studies she will analyze blood from cancer patients, taken before and after their operation and before and after new non-toxic treatments, to study what happens in human cancer patients. Most patients with solid tumours, like breast or colon cancer, have an operation to remove the tumour, but for a number of patients the cancer will come back, often spreading to distant organs. Many patients get toxic treatments, like chemotherapy, many weeks after surgery to try and prevent this. Dr. Auer's research is focused on trying to understand what is involved in the spread of tumour cells after surgery so that more effective, less toxic treatments can be given to patients around the time of their operation.