Canadian Tumour Repository Network

Dr Michael Sawyer is a medical oncologist and clinical pharmacologist for the Cross Cancer Institute of the Alberta Cancer Board. His interest is in pharmacogenetics as a cause of inter patient variability in terms of toxicity and efficacy from cancer chemotherapy. He also does research on the renal handling of cancer chemotherapy. He serves on the executive of the Alberta Research Tumour Bank of the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation Alberta/NWT chapter and the Alberta Research Tumour Bank's representative to CTRNet.

Dr. Brent Schacter is the Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Association of Provincial Cancer Agencies (CAPCA), taking on that role in July 2003. He was the President and Chief Executive Officer of CancerCare Manitoba in Winnipeg from January 1993 until August 2003. He is also a Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Manitoba. He continues to practice medical oncology at CancerCare Manitoba, has published over 50 scientific papers and has participated in over 30 invited and guest lectureships.

Dr. Brent Zanke received an MD degree from the University of Manitoba in 1983 and a PhD from the University of Toronto in 1993. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Canada, with speciality certification in internal medicine and medical oncology. Dr. Zanke conducted basic and translational laboratory-based research at the Ontario Cancer Institute before assuming administrative duties as Director of the Cross Cancer Institute in Edmonton. Currently he is the Provincial Head of Systemic Therapy for Cancer Care Ontario. Dr. Zanke also leads the multi-site Ontario tumour bio-profiling initiative of the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research's Ontario Cancer Research Network. This $10M project is part of an ongoing bio-informatics effort to organise clinical outcome measures with biologic profiles of human tumours. Dr. Zanke and co-applicant Dr. Tom Hudson received a $9.6M investment to study genomic predictors of colon cancer risk from Genome Quebec and the McGill University Innovation Center.

Dr. Lois Shepherd is a Professor in the Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine at Queen's University. She completed her medical school training at McGill and spent three years in England where her interest in Hematology developed. She completed her training as a Hematopathologist at the University of Ottawa and went to Queen's University, Kingston in 1987. Dr. Shepherd is currently the Director of the Transfusion Medicine Service and Immunology at Kingston General Hospital. Since 1989, Dr. Shepherd has worked with the Clinical Trials Group of the NCIC (NCIC CTG) as a Physician Coordinator. Her focus has been in Haematology and Breast Cancer as well as the development of the National Tumor/Tissue/Data Repository associated with the Clinical Trials Group where she is the Operational Director of this resource.

Dr. Mes-Masson is a molecular oncologist who obtained her degree in microbiology and immunology from McGill University in 1984. From 1984 to 1986, she pursued her post-doctoral studies at UCLA's Molecular Biology Institute, researching the BRC-ABL gene implicated in chronic mylogenic leucemia. She was then appointed as a research associate at the Biotechnology Research Institute in Montreal. In 1989, Dr. Mes-Masson joined the Montreal Cancer Institute, and the University of Montreal's department of medicine, where she became a full professor in 2001. Presently, Dr. Mes-Masson acts as Scientific Director of the Montreal Cancer Institute and is responsible for oncology research at the University of Montreal's teaching hospital (Centre de recherche du CHUM). In 2003, Dr. Mes-Masson was nominated as director of the Cancer Research Network (Réseau de recherche sur le cancer –RRCancer) for the Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec's (FRSQ).Dr. Mes-Masson's research focuses on the development of cancer models and on the identification of molecular events implicated in ovarian and prostate cancer, and their translation into clinical tools for patient management.

Dr. Watson is the Chief Physician Vancouver Island Centre, Senior Scientist and Director of the Tumor Tissue Repository Program at the BC Cancer Agency. He is a Professor of Pathology, University of British Columbia, and also holds academic positions at the University of Victoria and University of Manitoba. 

He completed his medical training at the University of Cambridge and St Thomas’s Hospital London, UK in 1983 and specialist training in Anatomic Pathology at the University of Manitoba in 1988. After research fellowship training he established a career as a clinician scientist in 1993 at the University of Manitoba, and since 2005 at the BC Cancer Agency.

He combines a clinical practice as a breast pathologist with a research interest in the molecular pathology of breast and ovarian cancer, and an interest in the discipline of biobanking.

His research program focuses on biomarkers of breast tumour progression and response to therapies. This work has included the discovery, validation, elucidation of the mechanism of action, and exploration of the therapeutic potential of the S100A7 gene in breast cancer. This research has been supported for over 15 years by national and international funding agencies (NCIC, CBCRA, MRC, CIHR, USAMRMC) and has led to publication of over 120 scientific research papers.

He has also lead provincial and national biobanking initiatives to advance translational cancer research. Currently he directs the BC Cancer Agency Tumor Tissue Repository and the Manitoba Breast Tumor Bank, and leads the BC BioLibrary and coleads the Canadian Tumor Tissue Repository Network platforms.