Generously funded by DUNN with Cancer

David Fortin – University of Sherbrooke, QC

Project Title: “Customized GlioGel formulation for the treatment of glioblastoma”

Description of Project:

The brain tumour cancer named glioblastoma (GBM) remains incurable to this day. The main obstacles to GBM treatment can be summarized in 3 factors: the systemic delivery impediment to the brain related to the presence of the blood brain barrier, the brain tumour stem cells that are highly resistant to standard therapies and the high migration capacity of tumour cells permeating the brain. We propose the combination of chemoattraction, chemotherapy and radiotherapy in a gel inserted into the tumour resection cavity to improve the treatment of GBM. This approach is a local deadly trap for tumour cells that minimizes side effects. Our preliminary results shave shown 1) a very efficient chemoattraction of tumour cells toward the cell 2) high efficiency in eliminating these attracted tumour cells by chemotherapy delivered locally by a gel, and 3) gel-bearing radioisotope shown great feasibility in our animal model. Now it’s time to combine there three modalities into the gel to optimize glioma treatment in a final gel formulation for a preclinical confirmation aimed at future clinical application.

What receiving this award means:

Securing funds for research is difficult, even more so when a rare disease is at stake. As you no doubt have guessed, brain cancer is amongst these rare diseases. Albeit relatively unusual in incidence, it remains one of these aggressive cancers for which there has been very little progress in last the decades. Because of that, we feel that a paradigm shift should be considered in the treatment approach of this disease. Hence, this research project, which has been 10 years in the making, and is progressing very well, and will continue to do so thanks to this generous grant. Thank you again! Rest assured that we will continue to work tirelessly to improve the care of brain tumour patients.