UNews - chemotherapy

Master's student earns Alberta Cancer Foundation research studentship award

trevor.kenney — Mon, 08 Sep 2014 18:00:21 +0000

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge master’s student, Anna Kovalchuk (BSc ’14), has been awarded the 2014 Dr. Cyril M. Kay Graduate Studentship from the Alberta Cancer Foundation.

Anna Kovalchuk is examining the effects of chemotherapy drugs on the brain using an animal model.

A prestigious awards program, these studentships are awarded to exceptional students interested in medical or health research related to cancer. They are available across the cancer control continuum, including studies in etiology, prevention, detection, diagnosis, treatment, health services and palliation.

Kovalchuk’s project, which was deemed to be the highest-ranked project of those chosen to receive awards, involves examining the effects of chemotherapy drugs on the brain using an animal model. She receives $27,000 for the first year of her study, as well as a research stipend valued at $1,500 that allows her to attend conferences and like events.

“The project is sort of a continuation of what I was working on while I was an undergraduate student,” says Kovalchuk, whose master’s thesis supervisor is Dr. Bryan Kolb in the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s Department of Neuroscience. “That project involved looking at the effects of radiation on rats and I thought it’d be interesting to look at the other form of cancer treatment, chemotherapy. We want to profile what happens on a molecular level to see what’s going on, which genes are being upregulated or downregulated.”

Patients undergoing chemotherapy often report cognitive after effects, such as attention deficit and memory loss. Kovalchuk’s work will attempt to decipher what chemotherapy drugs are doing genetically and may help explain, at least in part, mechanisms of the chemo brain phenomenon.

“We’re not looking for a way to make a new treatment, instead we want to look at what is happening on a molecular level in the brains of animals exposed to chemo drugs to see if we can profile what the drugs are doing to the brain cells,” she says. “If we can understand the mechanics of what’s going on at the base molecular level in the brain, we could be better enabled to find ways to help people who, after having chemotherapy, suffer these side effects.”

Kovalchuk, the daughter of accomplished ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge genetic researchers Drs. Igor and Olga Kovalchuk, is passionate in her desire to combat cancer. She has consistently been among the country’s leading fundraisers for the annual Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation CIBC Run for the Cure Post Secondary Challenge, and her professional goal is to become a radiation oncologist. She recently wrote her Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) and will be applying to medical school later this fall.

“I’m just so grateful to have received this award from the Alberta Cancer Foundation so that I can continue along with this project and make a contribution to fight against cancer,” she says.

Horns play with greater purpose

trevor.kenney — Fri, 25 Oct 2013 22:30:40 +0000

Erica Williams’s father Len was able to get out of bed and go for a walk the other morning. For that, his daughter was thankful – it was a good day.

Since being diagnosed with terminal cancer in April, the good days have dwindled for Len, and likewise for his daughter, a fourth-year forward for the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Pronghorns women’s hockey team. That has not dissuaded Erica from pushing forward with a positive attitude culled from the example her father displayed throughout her childhood in Weyburn, Sask.

Erica Williams has taken a positive approach as she deals with her parents' illnesses.

“I obviously don’t know what he’s feeling right now but I can understand that he wants to be his best for his family so he’s decided not to do any more chemotherapy treatments and is just focusing on the quality of his days,” she says. “I think that’s pretty courageous, but he’s a pretty brave guy so I wouldn’t expect anything less from him.

“There are days where I’m sure he’d want to just lay in bed but he still manages to get in the car and come out here to Lethbridge and spend some time with me for a couple days – that’s just who he is.”

Williams and her teammates will have Len on their minds this weekend when they take on the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Saskatchewan Huskies for a pair of Canada West games at Nicholas Sheran Arena (the puck drops at 7 p.m. both Friday and Saturday night). The entire weekend will double as a fundraising effort for the Len Williams Coaching Legacy Fund and the Jack Ady Cancer Centre.

“I couldn’t imagine,” says Erica, her voice cracking, “being on a different team because they have all been so supportive, everyone has done their best for this.”

Williams is self-described as “pretty loud”, an outgoing personality, but that has all changed since the phone call she received late one evening in April.

“I’d talked to my mom beforehand about the tests my dad was getting and we’d broken it down into option one, two and three, with three being the worst-case scenario where they had found cancer everywhere,” says Erica. “When she called, all she said was “It’s option 3” and I had to end the call and cry it out.”

Four days later, Erica returned to Weyburn, having postponed her finals to be with her family. The night she arrived home, her mother suffered a stroke, further compounding the family’s troubles.

After an extensive hospital stay, her mother is recovering, and Erica says the family had a very good summer. Her father was able to take part in a number of community events in support of the legacy fund established in his name, and reconnected with countless people he’d influenced as a coach and prominent Weyburn citizen.

For Erica, getting back to school and playing hockey was an important aspect of returning some normalcy to her life. Now in her fourth year, she is readying to graduate with a double major in psychology and sociology. She has already applied to graduate school at the U of L, looking to get her master’s of counseling in psychology or, as a back-up plan, apply to the social work program.

“As every day goes by I think about what was good that day,” she says about how her philosophy on life has been affected by her parents’ illnesses.

The support she receives from her teammates has been invaluable.

“There are a lot of times when nothing is said but nothing needs to be said. They’ll just come up to me and give me a pat on the back because they know what I’m going through and I know what it means,” she says. “We don’t talk about it but we don’t need to. They are so understanding – it’s hard to put into words.”

The weekend’s activities will include a raffle and silent auction, as well as a jersey auction of the special periwinkle-coloured jerseys the Horns will wear against the Huskies.

Over the summer, Williams and her family raised in excess of $65,000 for the legacy fund, helped in no small part by the contributions of her famous uncle, Dave ‘Tiger’ Williams. The former Toronto Maple Leaf great was able to use his hockey connections to bring in a number of items for auction, including two tickets to any Leafs game this season in the Alumni Box, a gift that netted $16,000 at auction.

This weekend, a Taylor Hall signed jersey, four lower bowl tickets to a Calgary Flames game, gift baskets and more will be up for grabs at Nicholas Sheran Arena.

Len Williams won’t be able to attend but he’ll no doubt be on everyone’s mind. His daughter wants the weekend to be a celebration of everything her father represents.

“My dad got to go for a walk yesterday morning, and even though he wasn’t feeling that good, he got to go for a walk,” says Erica. “That was something to celebrate.”

Golsteyn on cutting edge of cancer research

trevor.kenney — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 16:46:18 +0000

Roy Golsteyn is an associate professor of biology and an Alberta Ingenuity faculty member at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge. He is an example of the growing numbers of faculty who conduct world-class research while maintaining a teaching schedule that brings that research into the classroom.

He directs the Cancer Cell Laboratory where his team studies the problem of how cancer cells escape a cancer treatment. The majority of cancer patients in Canada will receive some form of treatment, such as chemotherapy or radiation, and unfortunately these treatments are not as successful as we would like them to be.

To improve them, we need to understand all the steps that occur after a treatment. Golsteyn's research team has developed a new experimental system that uses microscopes and special biological tools to study how cancer cells react to treatments. They have found that after a treatment, cancer cells will divide one more time, a "double-or-nothing" gamble called checkpoint adaptation that may produce cells that are resistant to future treatments.

Golsteyn's laboratory studies checkpoint adaptation in collaboration with biotechnology companies and the pharmaceutical industry, with the goal of helping doctors improve treatments for cancer patients.

5 questions with . . . Dr. Roy Golsteyn

trevor.kenney — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 22:38:56 +0000

Roy Golsteyn is an associate professor of biology and an Alberta Ingenuity faculty member at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge.

Dr. Roy Golsteyn directs the Cancer Cell Laboratory where his team studies the problem of how cancer cells escape a cancer treatment.

What first piqued your interest in your research discipline?

I actually recall clearly when I first became interested in cancer research. I was a research fellow at the Institute Curie. At that time, a medical research laboratory had published the results of a clinical trial in which a new anti-cancer drug was tested. The trial was deemed to be successful, and yet upon studying the results I was stunned to learn that many of the patients in the clinical trial succumbed to the disease. It was then that I realized just how difficult the disease is, and that doctors and patients need better treatments.

How is your research applicable in "the real world"?

I am a basic research scientist who studies cancer cells. In my laboratory, our goal is to contribute to the cure. Cancer is a major disease that touches many people, including indirectly our family and friends. We sometimes collaborate with biotechnology companies and with the pharmaceutical industry, in which case we focus on real world problems such as improving existing cancer drugs.

What is the greatest honour you have received in your career?

The greatest honour is leading research projects that are funded by charitable donations. People generously give their money without asking precisely how it will be used. We try to meet this honour by doing the best research that we can and by sharing our knowledge as quickly as possible.

How important are students to your research endeavours?

Students are the lifeblood of research. When we train them, we quickly see the weak points in our own knowledge. When they become autonomous, they think of questions that we had not yet even imagined and thus they push at the old barriers in science. Finally, the best students have incredible energy and an open mind, something that we seem to lose as we get older. We need students in research.

If you had unlimited funds, which areas of research would you invest?

Very simple. Rather than funding an area of research, I would fund scientists who are very motivated and propose a well thought-out question. Motivated people get things done, so it seems natural to help them go to work. Our best ideas come from the imagination, not from instructions. Our knowledge about how cancer cells divide came from someone who studied cell division in sea urchin eggs. It was not expensive research, but it was amongst the most valuable and that made it an excellent investment.

Each month, the Legend will present 5 Questions With . . . one of our researchers. For a look at the entire catalog of 5 Questions With . . . features, check out the Office of Research and Innovation Services website at www.uleth.ca/research/research_profiles. If you'd like to be profiled, contact Penny Pickles at pickpj@uleth.ca

This story first appeared in the February 2012 edition of The Legend. To view the full issue in a flipbook format, follow this link.

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Master's student earns Alberta Cancer Foundation research studentship award

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