Terry Fox lost his leg to osteogenic sarcoma when he was just 18 years old. And after 16 months of treatment, he couldn’t ignore the suffering of other patients in the cancer wards. Determined to stop the hurting, he set out on his Marathon of Hope with one goal in mind: to raise money for cancer research. Now, 45 years later, that same purpose drives Terry Fox-funded researchers, each one committed to advancing the science that Terry believed could save lives.
This Osteosarcoma Awareness Month, we introduce you to Wajih Jawhar, an early-career cancer researcher studying osteosarcoma – the same rare and aggressive bone cancer Terry had – with a Research Training Award jointly funded by the Terry Fox Research Institute and Canadian Cancer Society. As first author of a study published last week in Nature Communications, Jawhar, alongside research colleagues at McGill University, discovered important new insights into how osteosarcoma develops, along with a promising new pathway for potentially treating this devastating disease.
Jawhar was inspired to pursue cancer research after volunteering as a tutor for kids who had to miss school while undergoing chemotherapy treatment at a children’s cancer centre in his hometown of Beirut, Lebanon.
“This provided a different perspective on cancer,” he says, “one rooted in the experiences of patients and their families in centres and clinics – not just the cancer we see in textbooks or at lab benches – and one that profoundly shaped my future career goals.”
Now pursuing his PhD with former Terry Fox New Investigator Dr. Livia Garzia and Dr. Nada Jabado at McGill University in Montreal, Jawhar is leveraging their combined expertise in sarcoma biology and epigenetics (the study of how chemical changes can affect the expression of our genes).
Together, their labs discovered that epigenetic dysregulation frequently occurs in osteosarcoma tumours. This means that while the genetic sequence of certain genes remains the same, changes in how those genes are controlled can alter tumour behaviour – fuelling growth, resistance or aggressiveness. More specifically, they’ve pinpointed that a protein called EZHIP is abnormally present in approximately 20 per cent of osteosarcoma tumours and acts as an oncogene (an altered gene that can cause cancer), making the disease more aggressive.
“This is the first study across any cancer type to experimentally prove EZHIP’s role as an oncogene,” says Jawhar. “This breakthrough opens new avenues for understanding and potentially treating osteosarcoma.”
In fact, the team found that 40 per cent of osteosarcoma tumours in their study showed signs of epigenetic dysregulation – either through the presence of EZHIP or the loss of a key chemical that controls gene expression, known as K27me3. Loss of K27me3 is especially important because it's linked to worse outcomes, including relapse and the spread of osteosarcoma after treatment. Using lab models that closely mimic these tumours, researchers identified a drug called Tazemetostat as a potentially promising treatment for patients with these high-risk tumour profiles.
“While further investigation is necessary, this discovery offers significant hope and motivates us to continue research in this area, potentially paving the way for new therapeutic strategies,” says Jawhar.
In addition to advancing our understanding of osteosarcoma, this breakthrough represents another step forward in the marathon against cancer that Terry started 45 years ago. It’s through trailblazing science like this team’s work that we move closer to our shared goal: to finish it.
Learn more about our investment in osteosarcoma and other cancers.