New cancer research being conducted out of Dalhousie University

The new cancer research happening out of Dalhousie combines new technology and collaborates with multiple disciplines. 

Dr. Paola Marignani is the researcher working out of the Dalhousie lab who received the grant to pursue this new breast cancer research over the next three years. 

Dr. Marignani says the research focuses on why some women diagnosed with a specific type of breast cancer, HER2-positive breast cancer, respond favourably to treatment while others do not. 

“This new technology allows us to disassemble the breast tumor and sequence the DNA from each individual cell, and by doing this, we get a very large amount of information about an individual's breast cancer,” she told CityNews.

Researchers then utilize machine learning and artificial intelligence to break down the massive amount of information gained from the tumor cells. 

“When you collect 20,000 tumor cells, we are developing 20 terabytes of data that you really need require artificial intelligence to go through all the data sets,” Marignani said.

With that information, Marignani says, researchers can try and identify biomarkers that indicate why one woman responds well to the treatment while another does not.

“At some point,” Marignani says, “if we are able to identify potential biomarkers, we will be able to transition into pilot clinical studies to then go into the population of women with HER2-positive breast cancer and validate the biomarkers that we identified.” 

Marignani hopes at the end of the three-year study, researchers and collaborators will be able to identify druggable biomarkers. These markers can be “attacked” by designed chemicals and provide information on whether or not the cancer returns. 

Marignani says, “as a scientist, I believe we will improve the survivorship of not only breast cancer but of many cancers.” 

Marignani says the key to increasing survivability from cancer is to rethink how we approach the disease and treat cancer as we treat other chronic diseases.

“Will we cure it all together?” Marignani says, “I can't say because there are a lot of different types of cancers, but when you think statistically, a whole bunch of women used to die from breast cancer now the chances of surviving is your diagnosis of breast cancer after five years is 89 per cent.”