Cancer seminar offers new potential survival therapies

Grant recipients from Windsor’s Seeds4Hope program spoke at the Giovanni Caboto Club Oct. 28 about the latest discoveries in the causes and treatment of certain cancers.

The Seeds4Hope program was created several years ago by the Windsor Essex County Cancer Centre Foundation in an effort to put more money and research into finding new methods of diagnosing and treating different cancers. The program also establishes lines of communication between scientists, doctors and mental health experts to ensure all patients benefit from their treatments from diagnosis to remission.

“It is a very exciting time for Windsor. With the funding from Seeds4Hope, our new clinical trial is able to offer patients a brand new therapy that has a strong chance of greatly increasing survival rates,” said Lisa Porter a three-time grant recipient and associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Windsor.

“Additionally, this trial has grown so much that we were given additional funds which allowed us to add new technologies so we can conduct more thorough testing for our patients.”

Professor Eleanor Maticka-Tyndale is a distinguished professor for the University in the sociology, anthropology and criminology departments. She said the grant she received in 2009 allowed her team to make two important discoveries regarding the treatment of gynecological cancers. Both of these breakthroughs resulted in fewer physical and psychological effects on the patients after cancer are now becoming the new standard of care around the world.

“We are extremely proud of our study’s results. You don’t often see practical results coming out of a project right away and we did have two very practical results,” said Maticka-Tyndale.

Several members of the audience participated in a brief question and answer session after the presentations were finished and some had praise for the night’s presenters.

“I know I’m extremely proud of what Windsor has done and I think that sometimes our city gets a bad rap for some of the negativity that happens,” said Criss Ann Ellis-Sandre.

“I also think if our city knew more about what the breakthroughs they’re making all the time rather than unionizing, homeless people and downtown Windsor, I think that maybe the articles about us across the globe would be glowing because of everything they’ve accomplished.”

Members of the foundation have contributed nearly $1.7 million in grants to local cancer research through the program so far and plan to keep supporting it until a cure for cancers is found. The foundation’s next fundraiser is their month-long Grow On campaign and they hope to see a great turn out of participants at their annual Stashe Bash on Nov. 27.

 

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