The Hamilton Spectator's Steve Buist Interviews Prof. Gurmit Singh

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Hendrik Poinar

Ian Bruce November 2

Gurmit Singh December 14

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January 2003-June 2003

Past Lectures
September 2003-May 2004

Science in the City
Overview & Schedule

Professor Gurmit Singh

The following article is reprinted courtesy of the Hamilton Spectator, McMaster University’s partner in the Science in the City Lecture Series.

Science lecture follows path of cancer cells

Steve Buist

The Hamilton Spectator
Dec. 13, 12:45 EDT

For researchers involved in putting together the cancer puzzle, clues have always had to be collected in painstaking fashion from a state of suspended animation -- microscope slides, petri dishes, a sacrificed mouse or more, grimly, a human patient who has lost the fight.

But recent advances in technology now allow scientists to track the movement of cancerous cells throughout the body of living animals in real time.

These are crucial steps because, in about 90 per cent of all cancer mortalities, it's the migration of tumours to a secondary location in the body that ultimately causes death.

Finding ways to slow down and eventually prevent the migration of tumour cells could significantly improve survival rates for cancer patients.

That will be the topic of a lecture to be delivered by Dr. Gurmit Singh tomorrow night in The Spectator's auditorium.

The lecture is titled Cancer Detectives: The Search for Clues.

It's part of the Science in the City lecture series, sponsored jointly by McMaster University and The Spectator.

Singh is the director of research at the Juravinski Cancer Centre in Hamilton and a professor in the Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine at McMaster University.

Researchers at the Juravinski Cancer Centre are developing a unique high-tech camera system that can track the movement of tumour cells through the body.

By tagging the cells to make them appear fluorescent, researchers can monitor the progress of cancer in a living animal.

It also allows scientists to study the effectiveness of treatments more quickly.

"To me, the most exciting part is that now we have the technology to be able to study things in real time as opposed to frozen time," said Singh.

The strategy for dealing with primary cancerous tumours hasn't changed much in decades -- cut them out, then bombard any stragglers left behind with drugs and radiation.

But metastatic cancer -- cancer that has spread to a secondary site -- has been a difficult puzzle to solve.

"We know that the success in a lot of cases is simply just buying time, which may give us another two years or four years, depending on the kind of cancer and the stage you're dealing with," said Singh.

Certain cancers have preferred sites for migration.

Breast and prostate cancers, for instance, tend to migrate to bones, while colorectal cancer usually metastasizes to the liver.

Scientists are trying to figure out what kind of signalling takes place that influences these different migrations.

"There is already some sort of soil that these tumours like to be in and that's what they seek out," said Singh.

The good news for researchers is that these signalling pathways could offer new targets for cancer treatments.

"Before there was only one target," said Singh. "Now it's not just the tumour cell but also the accomplices in there.

"The immune system may also be aiding the tumour cells to grow."

This lecture is free of charge and open to the public.

To register for a spot, call 905-525-9140, ext. 24934, or send an e-mail to sciencecity@mcmaster.ca.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the talk begins at 7 p.m.

sbuist@thespec.com

905-526-3226