My name is Aqsa and I work in the clinical genome interpretation team at OICR generating clinical reports for cancer patients. My father was diagnosed with glioblastoma at age 50 and passed away at 51. And my sister was diagnosed with colon cancer at age 17 and passed away at 20. At that time, I […]
Ovarian cancer is what I have. It does not really cause many symptoms. Nothing noticeable, especially once you’re of the age of menopause. It’s not something I ever imagined having. But I had one tiny little symptom, and a friend of mine said, “you better go get tested.” I went to the doctor. They couldn’t
I was a researcher in cancer on the side of medical physics, and for many years worked at trying to improve the precision of radiation therapy treatments. It was very strange when I was diagnosed with prostate cancer and I would be receiving radiation as treatment with techniques that I helped develop. I was diagnosed
I was always interested in working in an area that had real-world applications and would improve human health. My first full-time job was in research studying how a substance called surfactant could help treat premature babies with respiratory issues. From there, my research work has been on the molecular basis of memory, diabetes, and medical
When I was 15, I was diagnosed with high-grade aggressive osteosarcoma. Being in grade 11 and having come to Canada as a refugee, we were just blown away by this diagnosis, and so shocked. Thanks to the many people that were caring for me, I was able to get treatment and surgeries. I was able
I started my career in computer science. With a PhD in computer science, I had many career options. I decided to get into bioinformatics because it was taking off shortly after I finished my PhD. It was very exciting — lots of opportunities, lots of great work being done. It was good, but it was
Cancer research has had an influence on my life for the past decade or so. It really started when I was 15, and I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. I had a relatively short course of treatment and I was cancer free within a few months. It was wonderful to be cancer free, but the
Cancer research changed my life because it defined the trajectory of my training and my career. Right now, I’m at the end of my MD/PhD training. I’m going through clinical rotations and I’m in the leukemia clinic seeing patients. Something I appreciate is how profoundly things like genomics have an impact on cancer care. Some
Cancer research changed my life because without it, I wouldn’t be here today. And without research, I wouldn’t have the opportunity to watch my daughter grow up. In January of 2020, I was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. I was sent to a cancer centre and did a month of chemotherapy. Unfortunately, that chemotherapy didn’t
Cancer research has changed my life in very fundamental ways over the last 30-plus years. It started, as it does for many people, with a personal experience. In my case, it was my wife in her early 30s being diagnosed with a rare cancer. At first, we struggled to find the right diagnosis and the
