Neuro-Oncology

Overview

The Neuro-Oncology Program, spanning multiple Departments, Institutes and medical disciplines, is dedicated to the care of patients with primary brain tumours and neurological complications of cancer. The Program includes formal Fellowship Training in the medical and surgical aspects of Neuro-Oncology and also includes research activities that span the clinical to basic biomedical continuum.  

Members of the Department of Clinical Neurosciences make a significant contribution to the success of the Neuro-Oncology Program in a number of important ways. First and foremost, members provide Neurosurgical and Neuro-Oncological patient care services for adults and children at the Foothills Medical Centre, Alberta Children’s Hospital and Tom Baker Cancer Centre, oversee the Fellowship Training Programs in Neuro-Oncology, supervise Graduate Students and provide senior leadership to the Clark H. Smith Brain Tumour Centre (http://www.ucalgary.ca/braintumourcentre) and Southern Alberta Cancer Research Institute (SACRI; http://www.sacri.ucalgary.ca) at the University of Calgary. Members of Clinical Neurosciences were instrumental in establishing the Brain Tumor Stem Cell Core Facility; Molecular Diagnostics Core Facility; Brain Tumor Tissue Bank and Bio-Repository; Alberta Radiosurgery Centre, Neuro-Oncology Nurse Practitioner Program; and Advanced Image Processing Laboratory. The Intraoperative Imaging Program in the Seaman Family MR Centre and the highly innovative robotic NeuroArm are other initiatives led by members of Clinical Neurosciences that directly enhance the care of patients by improving surgical therapies for all types of brain tumor.

A patient care conference (i.e., Tumor Board) and clinical trials meeting is held weekly at the Tom Baker Cancer Centre and every other week there is informal research and visiting speaker seminar in the Faculty of Medicine. Clinical research efforts are focused on low and high gliomas in adults and medulloblastomas in children. Most clinical trials are conducted within large National or North American co-operative groups, such as the National Cancer Institute of Canada – Clinical Trials Group or the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group, but industry-sponsored studies and small in-house trials are also supported. Areas of basic research emphasis include 1) brain tumor stem cell biology, 2) mechanisms of chemotherapy and radiation resistance in brain tumor, 3) non-invasive detection of molecular changes in brain tumor using new imaging techniques and 4) development of experimental therapies for brain tumor including oncolytic viruses, drugs that block the spread of brain tumor cells and methods for drug delivery.

Directors:

Dr. Greg Cairncross - Medical
Dr. Mark Hamilton - Surgical

Team:

• Neurosurgeons: Dr. Mark G Hamilton, Dr. Betty MacRae, Dr. Yves Starreveld, Dr. Garnette Sutherland
• Neuro-Oncologists: Dr. Jay Easaw, Dr. Peter Forsyth, Dr. Greg Cairncross
• Neuro-Pathologists: Dr Jennifer Chan, Dr Jeff Joseph, Dr David George
• Radiation Oncologists: Dr. Rob Nordal, Dr. Alex Chan, Dr Siraj Husain
• Nurse Clinician: Crystal Tellent
• Research Nurse: Annabelle DeGuzman
• Neuro-Oncology Fellow: Dr Paula de Robles
• Graduate Students: Dr. John Kelly, Michael Blough, Morgan Westgate

Grant Support

• Canadian Institute for Health Research
• Alberta Cancer Research Institute
• Tom Baker Cancer Center
• Hotchkiss Brain Institute
• National Cancer Institute of Canada
• Alberta Cancer Foundation

Updated: 2009-04-30