B.C. signs agreement with Japanese company to beat cancer

The BC Cancer Agency and the Vancouver Prostate Centre announced a formal agreement with Japan-based Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited for new drug treatments to fight breast, ovarian and prostate cancers. The agreement is expected to bring almost $1 million in new cancer research funding to British Columbia.

Samuel Aparicio, professor at the Dept. of Pathology and Laboratory at UBC Faculty of Medicine, is the lead investigator for the collaboration. He is the head of the Dept. of Molecular Oncology at the BC Cancer Agency and is also the Nan and Lorraine Robertson chair.

The Vancouver Prostate Centre will also focus on looking at key mutations in prostate cancer that have become resistant to conventional therapies under the leadership of Martin Gleave, distinguished professor at the Dept. of Urologic Sciences at UBC, director of the Vancouver Prostate Centre, and the Liber Ero BC leadership chair in prostate cancer research.

The BC Cancer Agency and the Vancouver Prostate Centre, a Centre of Excellence at UBC and VGH, are respectively programs of the Provincial Health Services Authority and Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute.

For more information, visit http://www.bccancer.bc.ca/ABCCA/NewsCentre/2010-News-Releases/BCsignsagreementwithjapanesecompanytobeatcancer.htm