Research

The Lung Cancer Program is actively involved in both clinical and basic science research. All members of the inter-disciplinary team participate. Our group routinely presents at major international meetings and has published in high impact journals.

Clinical Research

Clinical trials evaluate the latest pharmacologic agents in the treatment of lung cancer. These studies include both industry-sponsored, multinational and investigator-initiated clinical trials. We participate in the McGill Clinical trials program and the Jewish General Hospital Clinical Research Unit. Our clinical trials often include research protocols for different tumour subtypes, stages, treatment lines at different phases. All patients are evaluated for clinical trial eligibility, if deemed medically appropriate.

Quality-of-life clinical studies investigate individual and blended health-related effects of both medical and complementary treatments. Key areas include healing processes, meaning-in-life, and health and spiritual beliefs. 

Fundamental Research

Genetic biomarkers have led to the development of targeted therapies for lung cancer. Identifying the presence of specific mutations in patients has become an essential component of providing personalized treatment. Our research focus is to identify the clinical factors associated with specific genetic mutations in order to prescribe the most appropriate targeted treatment in a timely fashion.
Other areas of research includes inflammatory markers and treatment response.

In addition, we aim to identify Chinese herbs that are effective against lung cancer; specifically, herbs that make tumor cells more vulnerable to the effects of chemotherapy, or herbs that selectively kill lung cancer cells and or boost our innate immunity to fight the disease. Our investigative method involves computer-assisted drug design techniques, first developed in the search for Western drugs. This research is expected to lead to novel Traditional Chinese Medicine derived therapeutics that will extend overall survival of lung cancer patients.

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