Terry Fox Research Institute invests $10M into national cancer prevention initiative

The Terry Fox Research Institute (TFRI) has joined forces with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and partners to advance cancer prevention through a groundbreaking new funding initiative. 

Marking TFRI’s first dedicated investment in cancer prevention research, the program supports innovative projects across Canada with the potential to transform how we approach cancer risk reduction and early detection. 

With a total investment of nearly $10 million, TFRI is funding six research teams who will spend the next five years advancing prevention strategies for cervical, gastric, blood, colorectal, prostate and obesity-related cancers. 

Together, these projects will deepen our understanding of how cancers develop and help shift the focus from treatment to prevention. 

Team Grants: Bringing Biology to Cancer Prevention awardees supported by TFRI 

Each team will receive up to $2 million over five years to advance the following cancer prevention projects. 

British Columbia 

Drs. Gina Ogilvie, professor, Inna Sekirov, clinical associate professor, and Citlali Marquez, clinical assistant professor, all at the University of British Columbia, will lead a team investigating the many ways the body interacts with human papillomavirus (HPV) and identifying those at higher risk of cervical cancer, aiming to stop the disease before it starts. 

Dr. Isabella Tai, senior scientist at BC Cancer’s Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre and gastroenterologist at the University of British Columbia, will lead a team studying how pre-cancerous stomach lesions develop and why some progress to cancer while others do not. Their aim is to transform how gastric lesions are treated, reducing the likelihood that they progress to gastric cancer. 

Ontario 

Dr. Steven Chan, senior scientist and staff physician at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, will lead a team exploring whether GLP-1 receptor agonists (such as Ozempic) commonly prescribed for diabetes could help prevent or slow the progression of clonal hematopoiesis – a condition in which blood cells acquire mutations allowing them to grow abnormally – to blood cancer. Because these medications are already in use, the team hopes to accelerate new prevention strategies for clonal hematopoiesis and related cancers. 

*Dr. Alberto Martin, professor at the University of Toronto, will lead a team examining how dietary interventions can counteract the cancer-causing effects of pks+ E.coli, a naturally occurring bacteria in the gut. The research will focus on high-fibre diets, seeking to determine which types of fibre are most effective at reducing this harmful microbe and lowering colorectal cancer risk. 

Quebec 

*Dr. Vincent Fradet, professor at Université Laval, will lead a team studying the gut microbiome to identify biomarkers that could predict who is most at risk of developing prostate cancer and how aggressive the disease might become, paving the way for more personalized prevention strategies. 

Dr. Michael Pollak, professor at McGill University, will lead a team uncovering whether incretin-mimetics – medications such as Ozempic that are commonly prescribed for obesity and type 2 diabetes – could help reduce cancer risk for people living with obesity and potentially in other populations. Because these medications are already widely used, the team hopes that findings from this work can be translated into practice relatively quickly. 

*These projects have been co-funded with the Canadian Cancer Society. 

Learn more about this landmark funding initiative.