Since Saul Hertz launched the field of nuclear medicine in 1941 by treating a patient using a cocktail of radioactive iodine produced in a medical cyclotron, the medical use of radioisotopes has consistently expanded to become routine practice in modern hospitals.
I first started working as a (very) young summer student in a nuclear medicine research lab over 35 years ago and I have been passionate about the potential of the field ever since. Since then, we’ve seen amazing progress in our ability to target diseases and cancer using radioactive drugs for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. In particular, in the last decade, due a constellation of developments in nuclear chemistry, imaging technologies, chemical biology, and radiochemistry, our ability to design highly targeted drugs that deliver radioactive drugs for diagnosis and/or treatment has been improving at an accelerated pace.
Radiopharmaceutical therapy (RPT) involves the use of highly targeted drugs that home in on cancer cells at multiple sites in the body to delivery highly localized radiation to kill cancer cells while sparing healthy organs. This approach has been proven effective to treat patients affected by neuroendocrine and prostate cancers, and our goal is to build on Canada’s exceptional expertise in nuclear medicine to contribute to the global effort to make such treatments available for other cancers.
Our vision through this research initiative, funded by the New Frontiers in Research Fund – Transformation stream funded by the Government of Canada, is to improve the availability of rare isotopes for cancer therapy and bring new radiopharmaceuticals to the clinic to open up new treatment options for Canadians affected by advanced cancers. We are a multidisciplinary team of physicists, chemists, biologists, physicians, technologists, and health economists, focused on advancing science to benefit cancer patients. We plan to advance our research while keeping patients involved with the goal of developing new radiopharmaceuticals that will be accessible and cost-effective for Canadians and cancer patients around the world.
Our research initiative spans five general themes: 1) the development of novel or improved methods to produce rare radioisotopes; 2) the development of novel building blocks and tools to create new radioactive drugs; 3) the development of new molecules to carry radioactive isotopes, homing in selectively on cancer cells; 4) the introduction of new radiopharmaceuticals into clinical trials in Canada and 5) the economic and social evaluation of new radioisotopes/drug combinations, to evaluate their use from a patient and societal lens.
Involving researchers across Canada, we also intend to use this opportunity to train the next generation of scientists to expand on Canada’s internationally recognized excellence in nuclear medicine and radioisotope production.
All of us are directly or indirectly affected by cancer. Whether it affects us personally, our friends, or our loved ones, we are passionate to use science, hard work, relentless creative energy, and multidisciplinary expertise to tackle as many cancers as we can with the goal to improve the outcome of patients affected by this disease.
François Bénard, MD, FRCPC
Professor, University of British Columbia and Distinguished Scientist, BC Cancer Research Institute
Principal Investigator, “Rare Isotopes to Transform Cancer Therapy”