Interdisciplinary
Oncology Program
Clinical Research and Nursing
Dr. Francois Benard
François Bénard is the Vice-President, Research at the BC Cancer agency, a distinguished scientist at the BC Cancer Research Center and Professor in the Department of Radiology at the University of British Columbia. He holds the BC Leadership Chair in Functional Cancer Imaging. As a clinician scientist, his research interests are in positron emission tomography (PET), nuclear medicine, cancer imaging and targeted radionuclide therapy. His team developed several new radiopharmaceuticals targeting tumour receptors, notably peptides and small molecule ligands. He initiated the program that developed cyclotron production of 99mTc, now in clinical trials at multiple sites in Canada. He has established extensive multidisciplinary collaborations, and he and his colleagues were awarded the 2015 Brockhouse Canada Prize for Interdisciplinary Research in Science and Engineering by NSERC.
Dr. Kristin Campbell
Kristin Campbell, BSc, PT, PhD is a licensed physical therapist and Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy at the University of British Columbia. She also holds an appointment in Cancer Control at the BC Cancer Research Institute. She completed her PhD in exercise physiology at the University of Alberta and a Fellowship in Public Health at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre. Her research focus is on the role of exercise and energy balance in cancer prevention, rehabilitation and survivorship. Dr. Campbell is the author of over 165 peer reviewed articles and academic book chapters and she participates on national and international advisory boards and grant review panels on cancer prevention, rehabiliation and survivorship. In 2020, she received a Distinguished Achievement Award for Overall Excellence Mid-Career from the Faculty of Medicine at UBC and a Visiting Scholar Award from the American College of Sports Medicine in 2022.
Dr. Yvette Drew
Dr Yvette Drew is a Medical Oncologist and Associate Professor at BC Cancer Centre Vancouver and the University of British Columbia. She specialises in the care and management of patients with gynecological cancers and the development and delivery of early phase clinical trials. Dr Drew joined the team in Vancouver in 2021. Prior to this she worked as a Senior Lecturer/Medical Oncologist in the UK and was translational gyne cancer lead and deputy lead of the Experimental Medicines Centre in Newcastle. She undertook specialist medical oncology training at the Beatson West of Scotland cancer centre, Glasgow and the Northern Centre for Cancer Care, Newcastle. During this time, she was awarded a Cancer Research UK funded PhD fellowship investigating the role of PARP inhibitors in homologous recombination deficient ovarian cancer. During her PhD she won a merit award for her research from the American Society of Clinical Oncology and was awarded the Medical Sciences doctoral prize. Since coming to Vancouver, she has been awarded clinical trial research funding from Ovarian Cancer Canada and a 5-year Michael Smith Health Research BC Professional Investigator award. She is an active member of the GYN and phase 1 clinical trials groups within Vancouver and the Canadian Clinical Trials Group (CCTG). Dr Drew is the incoming chair of the CCTG IND committee. She has been principal investigator of multiple early phase to phase 3 studies. Research interests are the targeting of DNA repair pathways as treatment for cancer and novel therapies in gynaecological malignancies.
Dr. Martin Gleave
Dr. Gleave is a clinician-scientist and urologic surgeon whose clinical practice focuses on urologic oncology in a multi-disciplinary environment at the leading edge of assessing new technologies and treatments across both localized and advanced cancers. His research characterizes molecular mechanisms mediating treatment resistance in cancer, focusing on adaptive survival responses that drive acquired treatment resistance, and designing combination co-targeting strategies to create conditional lethality and improve cancer control. He patented several anti-cancer drugs and in 2001 founded OncoGenex Pharmaceuticals to develop OGX-011 and OGX-427, inhibitors of cytoprotective chaperones clusterin and Hsp27 now in Phase III and Phase II trials world-wide. He has co-founded several other companies including Sitka Pharma, TRiADD, and Sustained Therapeutics.
Dr. Kristen Haase
My research program centres on understanding the experiences of older adults as they manage cancer, chronic disease, and wellbeing. I have two main interests: (1) supporting older adults with cancer and their carers and (2) leveraging technology to support people with cancer and other chronic diseases. The goal of my program of research is to engage older adults with lived experience of cancer and chronic disease to co-lead the development of community-based interventions to improve quality of life and wellbeing amongst older adults and their caregivers.
Dr. Fuchsia A. Howard
Clinical Research and Nursing
Dr. Howard’s research examines the health service needs of survivors of acute life-threatening illness, specifically cancer and critical illness. She promotes socially responsive scholarship; generating evidence of survivor priorities vital for enhancing the accessibility and quality of health services. The overarching aim of Dr. Howard’s research is to generate patient- and family- perspective evidence of their health and disability challenges as the foundation to designing and evaluating patient-centred healthcare to address the complications of critical illness survivorship and the long-term burden of illness.
Dr. Stephen Lam
Stephen Lam MD, FRCPC is Professor of Medicine at the University of British Columbia and a Distinguished Scientist, the Leon Judah Blackmore Chair in lung cancer research and MDS-Rix endowed director of translation lung cancer research at the BC Cancer Research Center. He chairs the BC Cancer Agency Provincial Lung Tumor Group. His research interest is in screening, chemoprevention and endoscopic diagnosis of early lung cancer. He has published over 280 peer reviewed papers and book chapters. He was the recipient of the IASLC Joseph Cullen Award for life-time scientific achievements in lung cancer prevention research, the Friesen Rygiel Award for Outstanding Canadian Academic Discovery, the Gustav Killian Medal by the World Association of Bronchology for pioneering contributions to the field early lung cancer diagnosis, as well as the Killam Research Prize in Applied Sciences and the Distinguished Achievement Award from the University of British Columbia. Dr. Lam received his medical training at the University of Toronto. He joined the UBC Faculty of Medicine in 1979 and the BC Cancer Agency in 1984.
Dr. Robert Olsen
Clinical Research and Nursing, Population Health and Cancer Control
Dr. Olson is a clinician scientist. He is practicing Radiation Oncologist at the BC Cancer Agency Centre for the North, in Prince George, treating breast, head & neck, and lung cancers, with an interest in stereotactic ablative radiotherapy for oligometastatic disease. His research is focused on Health Services Delivery, including prescribing practices of oncologists, and integrating patient reported outcomes into routine clinical care in order to guide care, quality improvement, and research.