A revolutionary approach to improve the effectiveness of hematological cancer immunotherapy
Each year, some 16,000 adults and children alike are diagnosed with a hematological cancer, such as leukemia, lymphoma or myeloma, which represents 10 percent of all cancers in Canada. Approximately 50 percent of patients develop resistance to chemotherapy. In such cases, the only treatment currently available is bone marrow cell transplantation (immunotherapy), an approach with limited effectiveness and a high risk of rejection.
The project aims to make major strides towards improving the effectiveness of immunotherapy used to treat chemo-resistant cancer by reducing six-fold the rejection rate and developing a targeted lymphocyte transplant strategy with greater cancer-fighting ability.
Overall, the innovations stemming from this project will lead to significant gains in
life-years, an estimated value of $1.6 billion.
To learn more about this project, click here
Co-applicants and End-users:
| Pierre | Thibault | IRIC, Université de Montréal |
| Silvy | Lachance | Canadian Blood and Marrow Transplant Group |
| Sébastien | Lemieux | IRIC, Université de Montréal |
| Jean-Sébastien | Délisle | FRQS |
| Jean | Lachaine | INESSS |
| Anick | Dubois | Cepmed |
| Katherine | Bonter | Cepmed |
| Lambert | Busque | Université de Montréal |
| Marc | Lussier | Hôpital Maisonneuve-Rosemont |
| William | Brock | Patient representative |
| Tim | Smith | Octane Biotech |
| Manfred | Rüdiger | Kiadis-Pharma, The Netherlands |
| Muriel | Amar | Patient representative |
| Ronan | Foley | McMaster University |
| Marco | Decelles | Héma-Québec |
| François-Thomas | Michaud | Feldan Bio inc. |