‘No child would ever contract cancer’: Alberta researchers developing cancer vaccine

A research by the University of Calgary (UCalgary) is using “cutting-edge” methods to develop a highly efficient vaccine to treat the most difficult types of cancer in children.

Dr. Aru Narendran, a pediatric oncology physician at UCalgary, and his team are working on approaching stubborn cancer tumors from a new vaccine that can stimulate the immune response by highly effective molecules.

“Often, the cancer cells come up with various tricks to shield themselves from recognition and subsequent killing by the body’s natural immune system,” said Dr. Narendran. “On the other hand, we hope to use vaccines to help awaken the immune system to recognize the cancer cells and to launch an attack while sparing healthy cells of the body.”

Children’s cancer treatment has been improved in the last years, but there are still a large number of children in Canada experiencing resistance to the current treatments, creating a need for Narendran’s research.

Narendran’s team is the only Canadian team developing “discovered-in-Alberta” cancer drugs, and he is collaborating with the Kids Cancer Care Foundation of Alberta (KCCFA), Alberta Children’s Hospital, and international researchers.

The research will be done in a new world class center, Calgary Cancer Centre, that will allow the clinical and research efforts to work hand in hand.

‘It still feels like it happened yesterday’: Parent who lost child for cancer

Christine Mclver is a parent who lost a child for cancer 31 years ago, but she said it still feels like it happened yesterday.

She said her son, Derek, was diagnosed on Christmas Eve.

“As a parent I would have loved to have had a vaccine, so that my son never contracted cancer  … he was diagnosed 36 years ago on Christmas Eve, and passed away 31 years ago, but as most parents would say: ‘it seems like yesterday.'”

Two years after, in 1994, Mclver founded KCCFA to help parents and children who are struggling with pediatric cancer.

However, her hopes are high to develop the vaccine, so parents and children wouldn’t have to go through the heartache associated with cancer diagnosis.

“I think every parent whose child is diagnosed with cancer would love to know that there is a vaccine being developed, so that no child would ever contract cancer ever, and to put kids Cancer Care Foundation out of business,” Mclver said.


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She added KCCFA is watching UCalgary’s research closely, and doing everything they can to support their research.

“Every parent just wants their child to be cured, and then to be cured with the least long-term and side effects as possible. So to get there, we fund a lot of pediatric oncology, including research right here in Calgary,” she said.

Mclver said even without the vaccination, there’s still a cure for 70-80 per cent of children, but some cancers are recurrent and more dangerous than the others.

“And this is where the the immunology is really being developed and looked at to create a vaccine to fight childhood cancer, both in vitro and in children that are currently undergoing some kind of treatment for which a cure has been elusive,” she added.

The research is still in the pre-clinical stage.

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