Podcasts about ottawa regional cancer foundation

JENNIFER STEWART | FOUNDER AND CEO Jennifer is an accomplished leader in Canadian business, government, and public affairs. She is renowned as an expert in this field, often being called upon by national media for commentary. Additionally, Jennifer has twice been named one of the “Top 25 People in the Capital” by Ottawa Life Magazine, one of Ottawa's “Top Forty Under Forty” by the Ottawa Business Journal and the Ottawa Chamber of Commerce, and was a finalist for Ottawa's “Established Female Entrepreneur of the Year.” Jennifer has actively taken on many business and community affairs roles, including President & CEO of the Canadian Energy Marketers Association (CEMA), Co-Host and Co-Founder of The Honest Talk podcast, Chair of the Village of Carp Business Improvement Association (City of Ottawa), Board Member of the Youth Services Bureau of Ottawa Foundation, Member of the Board of Trustees for The Women in Technology Scholarship of Willis College, and Member of the Leadership Council of the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation.Welcome to Women Don't Do That Join us as we empower you with inspiration, knowledge, and skills to redefine your boundaries and unleash your potential. I'm Stephanie Mitton, founder and CEO of Beacon North Strategies, your guide on this journey from small-town girl to CEO while navigating career, motherhood, ADHD, and chronic migraines. Our conversations range from interviews with visionary women to solo episodes filled with actionable insights. Let's turn "what ifs" into "let's go" and redefine your possible. Mentioned in this episode: https://www.beaconnorthstrategies.com/event-details/nextgenDownload: https://www.womendontdothat.com/copy-of-resourcesOur Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/womendontdothatRecommend guests: https://www.womendontdothat.com/Stephanie's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stephaniemitton/How to find WOMENdontDOthat:PatreonInstagramTikTokBlogPodcastNewsletterWebsiteyoutubeHow to find Stephanie Mitton Twitter LinkedInbeaconnorthstrategies.com Interested in sponsorship? Contact us at hello@womendontdothat.comOur Latest Blog : https://www.womendontdothat.com/post/who-takes-their-kids-to-las-vegas-we-did

This episode is an exploration of grief and resilience with Dina Bell-Laroche, a Partner at Sport Law and the Founder of Grief Unleashed. Dina shares her journey through grief, triggered by the untimely passing of her younger sister Tracy (when Dina was 31 years of age).You'll hear how Dina initially navigated her sister's death by trying to be stoic, brave and courageous, but found hope, meaning and a way forward through a deeper understanding of grief and death (and her studies in Thanatology). Dina helps unpack the non-linear nature of grieving, and her insights offer a refreshing perspective on living a meaningful and rewarding life. As the driving force behind Grief Unleashed, Dina guides individuals in re-imagining their relationship with loss. Dina shares valuable advice and thoughts on coping with loss, especially during the challenging holiday season, drawing upon her experiences and expertise.Beyond her work in grief support, Dina dives into her extensive career in high-performance sports. With a remarkable background as a media attache and press chief at numerous national and international events, including five Olympic Games, Dina brings a unique perspective on what it takes to perform at the highest levels. A published author of "Grief Unleashed" and a parent of three, Dina's multifaceted life unfolds in this episode. Proceeds from Dina's book sales contribute to bringing a Wind Phone to Ottawa through the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation. To learn more about the Wind Phone Project and contribute, visit this link.Connect with Dina on Instagram (@grief.unleashed) and explore the transformative work of Grief Unleashed on their website.

Duane Francis joins The Drive to help set up this weekend's Fight for the Cure event, raising funds for the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation

Afton David was born into a military family in Valcartier, Québec. She grew up in typical “army brat” fashion, moving from base to base throughout her younger years. Throughout high school, she played Rugby and wrestled, which carried over to her post-secondary career as a varsity Rugby player at the University of Ottawa. She played provincial Rugby with team Quebec, winning gold at the 2016 Canadian Rugby Championship. During this time, she joined the CAF as a reserve infanteer with the Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa and she continued to study, play Rugby and pursue her military training concurrently.  She is a graduate of the University of Ottawa with three degrees: Civil Law (LL.L), Common Law (J.D.), and International Development and Globalization (B.Soc.Sc.). Following her graduation from law school, she was called to the Bar of the Law Society of Ontario in 2018 and she continued to devote her time to pro-bono work and academic writing. She began her legal career in private practice with Kelly Santini LLP, and moved on as in-house Counsel at TekSavvy Solutions Inc., and landed at Thales Canada Defense & Security as in-house Counsel in 2021.  She is the winner of the Mayor of Ottawa's Award for outstanding community engagement (2019), the Canadian Bar Association's Sword & Scale essay competition for her paper on legislative amendments to the Veterans Charter (2017), and is published in the areas of military justice reform (2021), medical assistance in dying (2018) and is mentioned in the Oxford Handbook of the Canadian Constitution (2015). She has deployed domestically three times; 2017 and 2019 on OP LENTUS and 2020 on OP LASER.  In 2019, she participated in her first amateur boxing match as part of Fight for the Cure, Ottawa's only white-collar boxing event, where she raised over $10,000 for the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation. In 2023, only seven months after giving birth to her son, Afton participated in the “Clash of Cartier”, a charity boxing event involving her military unit, the Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa. Afton firmly believes she could not have done any of the things she has done in her life without the unwavering support of her family, and especially her husband, Brett. She currently resides in Renfrew, Ontario, with her husband and eight-month old son. ------------------- Merch: ⁠https://shoot-like-a-girl-podcast.square.site⁠ Instagram: ⁠@shootlikeagirlpodcast⁠ Contact: shootlikeagirlpodcast@gmail.com

I don't know if you frequent the same social channels that I'm using for the podcast: IG, TW and my personal LinkedIn feed. I've put posts for the last 3 years on those platforms and the one thing I can tell you is that without paid promotion, it takes real work to reach a decent audience.  I wanted to know how others play this game so I asked someone who started promoting things on Facebook 15 years ago. He's not on all the social channels and doesn't pretend to keep his Twitter account active, but for the company that's his day-job and the clients he serves through his agency, he knows how to use content that gets noticed.  Today's guest, Kyle Turk, has headed the marketing teams at both public and private sector organizations. He has a Bachelor of Business Administration from St Francis Xavier University, and is a recipient of Ottawa's Forty Under 40 award. Listen for his explanation of how to conceive and create content.  He also does a great job of outlining how social selling should work to smoothly shift from public commenting with someone to  continuing the conversation through direct messaging.   Let's learn how to up our social media game, with Kyle Turk! People/Products/Concepts Mentioned in Show Faces Magazine Using influencers. If in larger company, bring employees to advocate for you on their social feeds Being professionally formal vs casual Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation‘s “Fighting for a Cure” event which featured Kyle boxing for charity Twitter Revue LinkedIn newsletters Kyle works at Keynote GroupKyle's boutique agency, Meerkat Episode Reboot Each episode of this podcast aims to solve a common problem that businesses have with strategizing, implementing and measuring digital marketing problems.   For more detail, please check https://funnelreboot.com/episode-59-strong-social-strategies-with-kyle-turk/

Join us as we speak to Melina Ladouceur, cancer coach at the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation. We'll be talking about cancer-related fatigue, what it is, and what you can do to manage it and increase your energy during and following cancer treatment. Melina will provide insights into what cancer coaching is and share tips so you can create a game plan that works for YOU and your life to have more energy, make the transition back to work, and to move forward towards the life you want after treatment.    Thank you to our partners at CIBC for supporting this web series!          

Simple Strategies for Building a Strong Immune System Charles Bens, PhD Simple Strategies for Building a Strong Immune System  Charles Bens, PhD   Charles K. Bens, PhD is an author, speaker and wellness consultant specializing in the prevention and reversal of chronic disease. He is the founder and president of Healthy @ Work, Inc. a wellness education and consulting company focused on improving the health of employees. The company provides workshops on a wide range of health topics. He has written nine books including Healthy at Work: Your Pocket Guide to Good Health, The Healthy Smoker: How To Quit Smoking By Becoming Healthier First and over 200 articles. Dr. Bens lectures all over the world on organizational change and improvement as well as on wellness and health improvement. He was selected by Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation as the Vail Visiting Professor for 2013. https://www.drcharlesbens.com/

Simple Strategies for Building a Strong Immune System  Charles Bens, PhD   Charles K. Bens, PhD is an author, speaker and wellness consultant specializing in the prevention and reversal of chronic disease. He is the founder and president of Healthy @ Work, Inc. a wellness education and consulting company focused on improving the health of employees. The company provides workshops on a wide range of health topics. He has written nine books including Healthy at Work: Your Pocket Guide to Good Health, The Healthy Smoker: How To Quit Smoking By Becoming Healthier First and over 200 articles. Dr. Bens lectures all over the world on organizational change and improvement as well as on wellness and health improvement. He was selected by Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation as the Vail Visiting Professor for 2013.  https://www.drcharlesbens.com/

This week, I speak with Daphne Ballard and boxing coach Scott Whitteker. Scott co-founded the Heart & Crown Presents Fight for the Cure. The event is Ottawa’s only white collar charity boxing gala. All proceeds from the night support the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation’s unique cancer coaching, clinical trials and ground-breaking cancer research programs. This year, marks a new era as women are stepping into the ring for the first time. Two women, in their 40’s, best friends, mothers and former teammates are going head to head. They have never boxed before nor even considered this as a bucket list item. This story becomes about stepping out of one’s comfort zone and finding the courage to try something different. While Lisa Langevin couldn’t join us for the podcast, her best friend and now boxing rival Daphne Ballard did. We dive into the training and transformation of these “every day people” into courageous boxers and hope to inspire some of you to try something different.

About the Interview Tina Kaczor, ND, FABNO, recently sat down with Dugald Seely, ND, MSc, FABNO, director of the Ottawa Integrative Cancer Centre, to discuss several ongoing studies in integrative oncology. Studying integrative oncology has unique study design challenges. They talked about how these challenges are met and how current study designs are attempting to accurately reflect complex in-office care. Seely covered a broad range of topics, from details of specific studies to an overview of the current landscape of collaborating with peers in integrative oncology. He also offered some tips on how private practice clinicians can begin to participate in research. The Thoracic POISE Trial One of Seely’s current research endeavors is the Thoracic Peri-Operative Integrative Surgical Care Evaluation (POISE) Trial. Seely says it’s probably the most interesting and complex study his team is currently working on. The goal of this trial is to explore the impact of naturopathic medicine in addition to conventional usual care at the hospital for patients who have thoracic cancers and are eligible for surgery. The researchers are randomizing a group of these patients into receiving standard usual care at the hospital only, or getting usual care plus an integrated approach delivered by a naturopathic doctor before surgery and for a year after surgery. They’ll be looking at a whole battery of different outcomes, including adverse events related to surgery, quality-of life-measures, immune function, inflammatory changes, cost-effectiveness, and, ultimately, long-term survival and recurrence rate over 5 years. Seely sees this study as an opportunity to investigate the effectiveness of truly holistic, whole-person care. To do that, they’ll be employing interventions in 4 domains: Targeted natural health products Nutritional approaches Fitness improvements (particularly pulmonary fitness) Mind and body medicine and psychological well-being At the end of the study, Seely expects to be able to say whether, as a whole, naturopathic medicine in this setting can make a difference in outcomes related to survival or adverse events related to surgery.  Canadian/US Integrative Oncology Study Another study Seely is working on is called the Canadian/US Integrative Oncology Study. This is being done in partnership with Bastyr University. The other principal investigator is Leanna Standish, ND, PhD, LAc, FABNO. This study, which will be conducted over a 6- to 7-year period, will recruit and observe the interventions given to patients with 4 types of late-stage cancer. The researchers will look at the naturopathic care interventions given to these patients at 11 different clinics across North America. Seely and the research team are looking at clinics with the most innovative and useful therapies in naturopathic oncology. They’ll document the interventions and follow the patients to observe effects on survival rates. In addition, they’ll be looking at cost and quality of life. In the end, Seely hopes the CUSIOS trial will shed light on the outcomes we see with patients who go through these advanced integrative oncology clinics. How Can Clinicians Get Involved in Research? For clinicians interested in getting involved in research, Seely offered this guidance: Build relationships. For him, doing graduate work was key because it automatically caused him to engage and collaborate with others. If you’re interested in research, start by connecting with people at academic institutions and begin the dialog. If you’d like to learn more about the sites currently involved in integrative medicine research, visit Clinicaltrials.gov. About the Expert Dugald Seely, ND, MSc, FABNO, leads the clinical practice and cancer research program for the Ottawa Integrative Cancer Centre. In addition to his clinical role as a naturopathic doctor, he also serves as the executive director of research & clinical epidemiology at the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine, affiliate investigator for the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, and vice president for the Oncology Association of Naturopathic Physicians. Seely completed his master of science in cancer research at the University of Toronto and is a fellow of the American Board of Naturopathic Oncology. As a clinician scientist, Seely has been awarded competitive grant and trainee funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Canadian Breast Cancer Research Alliance, the SickKids Foundation, the Lotte and John Hecht Memorial Foundation, the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation, and the Gateway for Cancer Research Foundation. Transcript Tina Kaczor, ND, FABNO: Hello. I'm Tina Kaczor with the Natural Medicine Journal. I'm speaking today with naturopathic physician and researcher, Dugald Seely. Dr. Seely is the founder and executive director of the Ottawa Integrative Cancer Center in Ontario, Canada. He has led numerous research projects including the largest integrative naturopathic cancer care clinical trial ever conducted in North America. He has more than 50 MEDLINE indexed peer-reviewed publications. Last but not least, among his many accolades over the years, he has most recently been awarded the Dr. Rogers Prize, which is a prize awarded in Canada for excellence in complementary medicine. Dr. Seely, thanks so much for joining me today. Dugald Seely, ND, FABNO: Thanks so much for having me on to talk, Tina. Kaczor: There are so many things that we could talk about in the realm of research. You're also a practicing clinician, so there's lots we could discuss. I want to start off with a couple projects that are currently ongoing for you, maybe that you're knee-deep in. If you could just start us off with a couple research projects that you have going on these days. Seely: Yeah. Sure. One of the ones that you mentioned, the integrative oncology study, is a big study that we're doing. That's probably the most interesting and complex study that we're running right now. I say running a little bit loosely because we actually haven't started it yet. We're waiting on final ethics approval. We're nearing the runway anyways. This is the Thoracic POISE Trial, which is the Thoracic Peri-Operative Integrative Surgical Care Evaluation Trial. The goal for this trial is to explore the impact of naturopathic medicine in addition to conventional usual care at the hospital for patients who have thoracic cancers and are eligible for surgery. What we're doing in this study is we're going to be randomizing a group of these patients into receiving standard usual care at the hospital only, or getting usual care plus an integrated approach delivered by a naturopathic doctor prior to their surgery and for a year after the surgery as well. We have a whole battery of different outcomes that we're exploring, including adverse events related to surgery. We're looking at quality of life measures. We're looking at some biological surrogates, including immune function, inflammatory changes in the body, and we're looking at some cost-effective outcomes and, ultimately, long-term survival and recurrence rate over 5 years. This study is a long study. It's going to take us probably, by the end of the whole thing, maybe 12 years. We're starting off with a feasibility component to explore the interventions and how effective they can be applied before we move into the randomized component with a much larger population. Kaczor: That brings up a question in my mind. That is, when you talk about the feasibility aspect, are you designing it such that the intervention will be standardized across the patients, or will this be more naturopathic in it being more personalized per patient in a systems-based approach? Seely: Yeah. That's a great question. We've struggled a lot with how to develop the intervention in a way that could be representative of naturopathic medicine in the field. Then, also scalable and standardizable in a way that it could be replicated in another trial. I think we balanced it as much as we can from both ends. It depends on who you speak to I suppose around that. The goal is truly holistic or a whole-person care. We have components that relate to the use of targeted natural health products that we've standardized for this population. We've got a nutritional approach that we've standardized to some degree. We have interventions related to improving fitness and pulmonary fitness in particular. Then we have interventions related to mind and body medicine and psychological well-being. Those four domains comprise the types of interventions that we have. Within each of those, we developed specific interventions that we detailed how this would be applied, and under what conditions, to these patients so that this can be clearly documented. There is a standardized approach that we're using. There is some flexibility in terms of the patients and how they represent in terms of making changes to the intervention. For example, if someone presents with diarrhea, they will be provided with probiotics as well as their core interventions. If they have weight loss, they would get whey protein as well. If they're experiencing mucositis or neuropathy, we'll apply glutamine. There are some things that we can tweak based on symptoms that the patient has. Initially, at least, everyone in the study is going to get a course of intervention that everyone will receive similar. We don't know what is going to be providing what effect. That's the nature of a pragmatic study like this. We'll be able to say, at the end of the day, that this whole-person approach, what effect does it have on the outcomes that we're looking at. These are important outcomes for these patients regardless. It's a bit of a black box at the end of the day. We won't be able to identify what specific intervention has what effect, but we can say, as a whole, naturopathic medicine in this setting can make a difference in outcomes related to survival or adverse events related to surgery. Things like duration of hospitalization after surgery, so we'll have information on that. Kaczor: This particular trial is being done in conjunction with area cancer centers and your center specifically. This is site-specific. Is that right? Seely: It is initially. The feasibility study, which won't be randomized, is going to happen with the Ottawa Hospital as the hospital site. Then, the Ottawa Integrative Cancer Center (OICC) will be the site where the naturopathic care will be delivered. Once we have run in a few of them, when we do the randomization, we do plan on having at least 2 additional sites across the country. We have a couple places identified that will be good sources for recruitment. It will take place in other sites as well. Kaczor: Great. I like the idea of it being a whole-systems approach because that's one of the things that we run into in naturopathic medicine is that the reductionist view of a single agent being studied is never reflective of what we're actually doing. That's great. My understanding is you have another study that has multiple locations. Is that correct? Seely: Yeah. We're doing another study, which is quite different. It's an observational study called CUSIOS. It's the Canadian/US Integrative Oncology Study. This is being done in partnership with Bastyr University and the other co-PI is Dr. Leanna Standish. Really, we're looking at in this study over a 6- to 7-year period to recruit and observe the interventions that are given to patients with late-stage cancer, 4 types of late-stage cancer. We're looking at what the naturopathic care interventions are being given to these patients at 11 different clinics across North America—5 in Canada and 6 in the United States. Each of these clinics are being led by what one would consider to be a naturopathic oncologist or someone steeped in naturopathic oncology. We're tying to look at clinics that have some of the best therapies, the most innovative and useful therapies, in the naturopathic oncology realm being given to these patients. We want to look at what those interventions are and we're documenting that using REDCap. Then, we're going to be also following these patients to see what the survival rate is amongst these patients. Then, we're also doing a substudy within that looking at cost and quality of life. Their experience through the care as well in a more of a qualitative kind of a way. Again, a lot of outcomes that we're trying to track, it is observational so it won't have the same sort of subjective biases for sure. It'll give us, I think, a lot of really good information about what the practice of naturopathic oncology is ostensively at its best, and what are some of the outcomes that we're seeing patients go through these advanced integrative oncology clinics. Kaczor: Yeah. Let me ask you this as far as time horizons. These are both pretty lengthy studies. I have a 2-part question. One, when can we look forward to preliminary results or the first publications coming out of either of these trials? Two, are they registered such that, regardless of how the data shakes out, positive or negative, that it will be published? I understand that once trials are registered in a certain way, the data has to be published at some point. Seely: Yes. For sure, we will publish regardless of what the outcomes are. The CUSIOS study is ongoing. It is registered under clinicaltrials.gov. Thoracic POISE is not yet registered because we haven't got it through ethics yet. We will be establishing that soon. We will be publishing those, no question. We actually have submitted one publication so far and it's been peer reviewed. This is looking at the intervention development process that we used for thoracic POISE, which is really a collaborative effort with physicians at the hospitals, at the hospital pharmacists, the naturopathic doctors as well. That's being submitted for publication. We also have information related to the survey. When you survey the whole profession through the Oncology Association of Naturopathic Physicians (OncANP), we wanted to know what were the best interventions, what were people using. That really helped influence the interventions that are being chosen for this study. That's also being submitted for publication. Hopefully, we'll see those out in the literature in the next few months. Kaczor: Great. I'm going to switch gears just a little bit. You mentioned pharmacists and other doctors at these cancer centers. I guess one question to us out there, whether we're clinicians or we're in the research realm, is collaboration and creating those bridges that are required to really study integrative oncology. My question to you is, how to go about that? Maybe just let me know if, over the years, has it changed? It seems like it would be easier now than say 10 years ago, or even 15 years ago. Can you speak on that a little bit? Seely: Yeah. I think it has gotten easier. There's more of an openness to doing the evaluations and the studies. We're seeing more interest in research, I would say overall, into naturopathic and complementary approaches to care. There's still certainly resistance that exists. Academics and researchers are much more open to looking at these questions typically than clinicians may be. The interest is really in trying to figure out what works from a research perspective. I do believe it's getting more easy to collaborate in that way. Funding opportunities are not easy for sure. I think that, within the naturopathic community, we know that we have a lot of low-lying fruit from our own intervention palate that it should be researched. There's good reason for it, and there's a lot of [inaudible], and there's some early evidence of benefit. [inaudible] have not been researched adequately in many cases. In terms of building relationships and trying to engage with others, I found doing graduate work was really helpful. There's an automatic process that you engage with others. There's an expectation to be collaborative, and reaching out to people who are doing research at institutions to say, "You've got a good idea about an intervention that might have some effect." I think people are surprised when there's really a good openness for those questions. I think finding people in academic institutions that have a focus on research is a good place to start and to try to start a dialogue and a relationship really. Kaczor: Yeah. Let me ask you one last question. That is, if people are interested either in your area geographically or they want to look up the centers that are involved in the US/Canadian collaboration trial, where should they look for more information? Seely: Clinicaltrials.gov will list all the different sites that are involved in the trial. I think there's more information related to that probably on our website, OICC.ca. Yeah, clinicaltrials.gov will have the information related to that. Kaczor: Okay. Great. As far as getting funding, this is usually in collaboration. I mean, you have a research background and a masters degree and such, so your advice to clinicians who just have their clinical degree is to collaborate basically and find others who are of the same passion for whatever question is being asked and maybe try for grants in that direction? Is that correct? Seely: Yeah. I think trying to become part of a team, reaching out to different groups that are involved in research techniques through the colleges. They often have research departments and may have some information related to that. Talking to universities and people there. A really great place to start, I think, in terms of doing research too is publishing case reports. There's more of a drive for case reports in [inaudible]. That's something that is ... I know that the AANP is trying to support more case reports. I think that diving into that and writing up a case report that really clinically just gets someone steep into what the evidence is in the literature around the topic and leads to more investment. It's a more accessible entry point into research I would say. Kaczor: That's a great bit of advice. We, as clinicians, are always ... Everybody has a few cases that are extraordinary over the years, so that's a good bit of advice, especially within integrative oncology when extraordinary cases do happen. It would be great to document that and see if there's commonalities and create studies like yours around those treatments. That would be incredible. I really appreciate your work, your time with me today. I hope we get to talk again in the near future. Thanks, Dugald. Seely: Thanks so much, Dr. Kaczor. I totally appreciate the journal and what you're doing with it. Thanks for having me. Kaczor: Take care.

If you’ve been listening for a while we appreciate your continued support and if you’re new to the show, welcome and thanks for stopping by. When most people think about fitness they think of the specific exercises they need to do and they think about having the right equipment to get the most effective workout, but rarely do people take a step back to look at the mental components and the behaviours around fitness that not only help you get faster, stronger or more mobile, but also keep you consistent and motivated. That’s what this show’s all about,  we hope you get some valuable information that is both useful and insightful, that will help you be the healthiest and most active version of yourself. Let’s get on it.   A few years ago I started running the fitness fundamentals course at the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation where I work with people that have either gone through some form of cancer treatment or have recently completed their cancer treatments and they want to either start exercising or get back into exercising again. When going through cancer treatments almost everyone experiences unfavourable reactions to chemotherapy or intense radiation, it’s not uncommon to have surgeries that permanently affect your body and the lack of energy or sleepiness can be overwhelming, not to mention all the different psychological effects it can have on you. All this to be said once a person has dealt with these changes their goals and abilities are going to be different, which means most likely their exercises will have to be different or at least modified, today we’re answering this question, how do you start an exercise program when your physical abilities have become different or restricted? ------------ Fitness For Freedom Online Personal Training Subscribe to Our YouTube Channel Follow us On Instagram - fitness_for_freeedom_1 Like Us on Facebook

Coming up on Biotechnology Focus Radio : The future of made-in-Canada CAR-T cells looks bright, Roche Canada and Merck each launch their own individual collaborative cancer research initiatives, and using immunotherapies to kill brain cancer Welcome to another episode of Biotechnology Focus Radio. I’m your host Shawn Lawrence, here to give you a rundown of this week’s top stories on the Canadian biotech scene. As you can tell by our teaser intro, cancer research and new initiatives into new therapies to tackle the disease figure prominently in our news headlines this week, and this is not a coincidence as February happens to be National Cancer Prevention Awareness Month. Story 1 On that note, our first story takes us to Ottawa, ON, where a team of researchers at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) have made a discovery, featured in Nature, center around a promising combination of immunotherapies that are able to deliver a one-two punch to brain cancer tumours in mice.  Led by Dr. Robert Korneluk, distinguished professor at the University of Ottawa and senior scientist at the CHEO Research Institute, the Ottawa reseach team was able to show in mice that a combination of drugs known as SMAC Mimetics and immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) amplifies kill rates of cancer tumour cells in laboratory testing. The research team also discovered a new mechanism by which the combination promotes long-term immunity against glioblastoma tumours. The combination therapy also proved to be highly effective against breast cancer and multiple myeloma. According to Dr. Korneluk, these findings represent a significant evolution in the field of immunotherapy, for the first time showing the synergistic tumour-killing impact of combining SMAC Mimetics with immune checkpoint inhibitors for glioblastoma. As part of this latest project SMAC Mimetics known as LCL161 and Birinapant were combined with ICI antibodies targeting PD-1 and CTLA-4 immune checkpoints. The findings have their roots in research conducted back in 2014, when a team of scientists led by Dr. Korneluk discovered that combining SMAC Mimetics with immune stimulators or live virus therapies had a synergistic or amplified tumour-killing effect that was greater than either agent on its own. Today’s news shows that SMAC Mimetics also have a powerful synergistic effect with ICIs, relatively new drugs that are showing great promise in the clinic. Eric Lacasse, a scientist at the CHEO Research Institute, adds that two drug companies have initiated human clinical trials this year to assess the impact of this combination of SMAC Mimetics and ICIs on patients with a variety of cancers. Although it could be years before any clinical trials begin for adults or children with the deadly brain cancer, glioblastoma, we’re looking forward to seeing how scientific evidence from these experimental treatments adds to our knowledge. It’s an exciting, exploratory field and we hope we’ve hit a home run.” Shawn Beug was the lead author of both the 2014 and 2017 papers, and the research was funded by the Canadian Cancer Society Research Institute, Brain Canada (with financial support from Health Canada through the Canada Brain Research Fund) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. In addition, the work was supported by donations to the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation, the Kiwanis Medical Foundation and the CHEO Foundation. Story 2 Continuing with the Cancer Research theme, Hoffmann-La Roche Limited (Roche Canada) reports that Toronto’s Princess Margaret Cancer Centre has joined the company's global cancer immunotherapy Centres of Research Excellence (imCORE) Network. The network brings together the world's leading scientific and clinical experts in cancer immunotherapy to collaborate on the investigation and development of promising new treatment approaches for the disease. As part of gaining a better understanding immune biology and cancer, and to ultimately improve treatment options, this includes initiating pre-clinical and clinical research based on the latest scientific discoveries in cancer immunotherapy and to aggregate, as well as share data within the Network to help accelerate research for people living with cancer.  The imCORE Network is comprised of 21 academic centres, inclusive of Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, from nine countries across the globe.   Dr. Lillian Siu, medical oncologist at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and Site Lead for the imCORE Network explains why the imCORE newtwork is exciting in the follow audio clip. http://stream1.newswire.ca/media/2017/02/14/20170214_C8704_VIDEO_EN_881863.mp4 As a part of a global announcement regarding the launch of the imCORE Network, Roche has also made a commitment to invest up to 100 million Swiss Francs (more than $130 million Canadian dollars) to support basic and clinical research collaborations related to cancer immunotherapy. Story 3 In an exciting public/private partnership, stakeholders in Quebec have launched a new research, development and investment hub to help accelerate the fight against cancer. The hub, called Oncopole is backed by a $15-million investment by Merck that will be administered over three years and overseen by the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Santé (FRQS). Through its model, Oncopole brings together various stakeholders under one flagship hub in oncology. It’s conception was structured with the involvement of more than 50 experts from the scientific community over the past year, who helped to identify its priorities. Recognizing the range of resources and infrastructures currently available as well as the strategic positioning of many researchers in Québec, the Hub will aspire to strengthen the research and innovation ecosystem in the province. Some functions of Oncopole will include enabling the incubation and creation of companies that will capitalize on innovation; and positioning cancer care in Québec among the best in the world in terms of clinical outcome, patient experience and system efficiency. Based on a thorough analysis of the various hosting possibilities identified across Québec, the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC) of the Université de Montréal was selected as the establishment which will host the Oncopole’s coordinating offices. Additionally, the FRQS and Merck hope that this initial investment will attract other partners to join the Oncopole and make it a truly collaborative initiative. Story 4     Switching gears to the bioindustrial sector, the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) announces that registration and housing are now open for the 2017 World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology. The conference, now in its 14th year brings brings together from across the globe business leaders, investors, academics and policymakers in the biofuels, biobased products, renewable chemicals, synthetic biology, food ingredients and biomass sectors. Industrial and environmental biotechnology is at the forefront of the biobased economy, generating good-paying jobs and making cleaner products and processes. This year event will be held July 23-26, 2017 at the Palais des congrès de Montréal in Montréal, Canada. According to Brent Erickson, executive vice president, Industrial and Environmental at BIO, two new tracks-Flavors, Fragrances and Food Ingredients and Agricultural Crop Technologies and Biomass Supply-have been added to this year’s programming, representing the extended value chain of industrial biotechnology. He adds that the decision to bring the World Congress back to Montréal had very much to do with the success of past events, and the local industries continues support of what has grown into the world’s largest industrial biotechnology conference. In 2016, the BIO World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology drew around 907 industry leaders from 529 companies, 32 countries and 31 states, as well as the District of Columbia and hosted a record 1,961 partnering meetings. For more information on the conference visit http://www.bio.org/worldcongress. Story 4 In our final story this week, BioCanRx, and its partners, are investing $11 million to support 16 collaborative research projects in novel therapies to cure cancer. including research aimed at developing Canada’s clinical Chimeric Antigen Receptor modified T cell (CAR-T) manufacturing capabilities. Considered a powerful new tool in the fight against cancer, CAR-T is on the cutting edge of cancer therapeutics, showing promise in paediatric and adult patients with certain blood cancers such as acute lymphoblastic leukemia and lymphoma. While promising, the development of such therapies require sophisticated manufacturing and expertise. Canada currently does have the basic laboratory infrastructure in place, and with this funding could take significant steps towards fully developing the expertise and capacity required to deliver this technology. The BioCanRx investment is going to research projects that will advance several innovative engineered T cell designs, to accelerate delivery of these novel concepts into clinical testing in Canada. Dr. John Bell, Scientific Director, BioCanRx adds his CAR-T manufacturing initiative is unique in that it represents the Canadian academic community recognizing a gap and stepping up to drive Canadian solutions to meet grassroots efforts taking place in the U.S., China and Europe. He discusses CAR-T cell manufacturing in Canada in the following audio provided by BioCanRX: https://biocanrx.com/wp-content/uploads/custom%20images/BioCanRx_Dr_JohnBellCART3.mp4 To help ensure CAR-T cell therapy is brought to patients safely and effectively, BioCanRx is funding a companion Clinical, Social, and Economic Impact project. It will review the existing base of knowledge and involve patient consultation to design a rigorous CAR-T clinical trial protocol ready to implement once the products are ready for a phase 1 clinical trial. Dr. Manoj Lalu, associate scientist, assistant professor, Clinical Epidemiology and Regenerative Medicine Programs, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, The Ottawa Hospital and Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, University of Ottawa discusses CAR-T therapy clinical trial design in the following audio clip. https://biocanrx.com/wp-content/uploads/custom%20images/Dr.%20Lalu%20-%20BioCanRx.mp4 To access the full list of the 16 projects funded, be sure to visit https://biocanrx.com/project-dashboards.   Well that wraps up another episode of the Biotechnology Focus Podcast. We hope you enjoyed it. Be sure to let us know what you think, and we’re also always looking for story ideas and suggestions for future shows, and of course we’d love to hear from you as well, simply reach out to us via twitter @biotechfocus, or by email at the following email address  press@promotivemedia.ca. And remember, you can also listen to past episodes online via our podcast portal at www.biotechnologyfocus.ca . For all of us here at Biotechnology Focus, thanks for listening.

In this interview, Dugald Seely, ND, founder and executive director of the Ottawa Integrative Cancer Centre, describes the research projects presently underway at the center. He also describes the pragmatic research design that is presently helping to advance the field of integrative research and he discusses the future of integrative cancer research. Approximate listening time: 16 minutes About the Expert Dugald Seely ND, MSc, FABNO, leads the clinical practice and cancer research program for theOttowa Integrative Cancer Centre (OICC). In addition to his clinical role as a naturopathic doctor he also serves as the director of research & clinical epidemiology at the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine, affiliate investigator for the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, and board member for the Society for Integrative Oncology. Seely completed his Master of Science in cancer research at the University of Toronto and is a Fellow of the American Board of Naturopathic Oncology (FABNO). As a clinician scientist, Dugald has been awarded competitive grant and trainee funding from CIHR, CBCRA, the SickKids Foundation, the Lotte and John Hecht Memorial Foundation, the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation, and the Gateway for Cancer Research Foundation.