Dalhousie scientists make breakthroughs in ovarian cancer research

A team of scientists at Dalhousie University are making major strides in ovarian cancer research.

With the help of a $725,000 investment from Ovarian Cancer Canada, they’re working to prepare powerful natural killer cell immunotherapy as a viable treatment options for people facing ovarian cancer, one of the most fatal cancers affecting women.

“We’re trying to find ways to use the immune system to target cancer,” says Dr. Jeanette Boudreau, a Dalhousie associate professor and project leader.

“The immune system is a really powerful tool that we can unpack and sort of learn lessons from in order to treat a whole spectrum of patients. So, we’re studying how the immune system works so that we can leverage it.”

Their plan is to duplicate as many natural killer cells or “N-K” cells as they can, using tools and techniques in their research lab.

“We can start with 125,000 N-K cells. and we can add somewhere around 10 to 100 million N-K cells within two weeks,” says Dalhousie student, Maryam Shaaban.

“When the N-K cells target the cancer cells, they kill them. And the cancer cells will shrink a little bit. And this is a process known as apoptosis. So, they induce apoptosis as in the cancer cells.”

Shaaban and other scientists at the lab spend a lot of time testing that theory on live cancer cells, thanks to donations from Canadian Blood Services.

“I think it’s a great environment. There’s so many people with so many different experiences, so many different projects always going on,” says Shaaban. “It’s kind of supplemented my learning to be able to do research. It’s made me a better scientist, a better student. ”

Boudreau hopes they can begin clinical trials in the next three years, with the help of her team.

“This program in my lab are largely trainees, many of whom are from Atlantic Canada, and they’re really keen to stay here. These are brilliant scientists and young minds that are coming up, and they’re trained to be able to do these types of studies, but also deliver these types of medicines right here at home with the infrastructure that we’ve built on the backs of the research that they’ve done here,” she says.

“We’re working up the technologies and we’re working up the processes that will lead to those clinical trials, as well as the prototypes of how we will return this information to patients and their physicians.”

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