Brain Cancer in Canada Backgrounder

Brain Cancer is one of five underfunded cancers that the Canadian Cancer Society has
targeted with research to improve the survival rate.

Approximately 1,750 men and 1,300 women in Canada are expected to be diagnosed with
brain cancer this year and nearly 2,300 Canadians will die from this form of cancer
About 170 children under 14 are diagnosed with brain cancer every year in Canada
It is the most common cause of cancer death in children under 14
It is the second most common cause of cancer death among older adolescents and
young adults aged 15-29
In adults, the most common type of primary malignant brain tumour is glioblastoma
multiforme. People with this disease survive on average only one year after diagnosis
The five-year survival rate for adults with brain cancer is 25%, compared to 63% for all
cancers
Because brain tumours are located at the control centre for thought, emotion, and movement,
they can dramatically affect an individual's physical and cognitive abilities and quality of life
For children with brain cancer, the 5-year survival rate is 75%, however they often live with
long-term side effects or late effects, which include:
psychological or social problems
learning disabilities
growth and developmental problems
hearing problems

A Unique Partnership Making a Difference

The Canadian Cancer Society, in partnership with Brain Canada and the Government of Canada,
have launched an initiative to increase the amount of research on brain cancers, both in children
and adults, so more lives can be saved and improve the quality of lives of Canadians living with
brain cancer.

The partnership is unique because it enables the Canadian Cancer Society to leverage matching
funds from Brain Canada through the Canada Brain Research Fund, a public-private partnership
established by the Government of Canada.

Through this fund, non-federal donations are matched dollar-for-dollar by federal funds to support
Canadian neuroscience research and advance knowledge and treatment of brain disease and
mental disorders. The joint funding platform is designed to fund new research that will quickly
adopt innovations and accelerate the application of new knowledge to address problems in brain
cancer.

This partnership between two leading research funders will result in increased investment in brain
cancer research and will encourage collaboration between scientists from the cancer and
neuroscience fields. It is the largest partnership investment in brain cancer that the Society has
ever made.

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Over the next two years, every dollar donated to the Canadian Cancer Societys brain cancer
Impact Grants will be matched dollar for dollar by Brain Canada. In Manitoba, a number of
projects have already taken advantage of this matching gift to raise more than $50,000 to fight
brain cancer.

Commitments Already Funding Research

In partnership with Brain Canada, the Canadian Cancer Society has announced six research
grants valued at $1.25 million each to research teams that are focusing on brain cancer in
children.

In addition to this, the Society also funded over $1.6 million supporting 17 lead investigators
across Canada exploring what causes brain cancer, how to defeat it and how to improve lives of
childhood cancer survivors living with side effects from intense treatments. This year, 8 new
research grants and awards will receive $2.2 million in new funding including:

Dr Robert Korneluk from the Childrens Hospital of Eastern

Ontario is developing new therapies that harness our own immune
system to treat aggressive brain cancer.

Last year, the Society-funded Canadian Cancer Trials Group conducted 6 brain cancer clinical
trials providing 421 brain cancer patients from across Canada with access to cutting edge
research and the best hope for improved outcomes.

These trials resulted in the first significant change to glioblastoma treatment in more than 30
years, more than doubling the two-year survival. Society-funded researchers continue to bring
new insight and approaches to tackling brain cancer. In 2016, the Canadian Cancer Society
supported key research findings, including:

The Brain Canada grants are possible because organizations like the Winnipeg Police Service
Half Marathon have made commitments to support brain cancer research. The research projects
awarded funding this month are:

Dr Poul Sorensen, University of British Columbia: Therapeutic targeting of

neural tumours overcoming cancers ability to resist treatment

The childhood brain tumours medulloblastoma and

neuroblastoma can be aggressive and hard to treat. Dr Poul
Sorensen, a pathologist and professor at Vancouvers University
of British Columbia and Senior Scientist at the BC Cancer
Agency Research Centre, is targeting what he believes is the
Achilles heel of tumour cells: namely, how they adapt and
survive under stress. He has discovered that an enzyme called
eEF2K helps cancer cells cope with stress and resist treatment.
In this project, Dr Sorensen and his team will determine how
eEF2K protects brain tumour cells under stress and test whether
blocking the enzyme will make cancer cells sensitive to therapy.
This work could lead to more effective and targeted treatment
options for childhood brain cancer.

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Dr David Stojel, Childrens Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute: Virus
could boost patients immune system
Glioblastoma multiforme is a fast-growing tumour and the most
common malignant brain cancer in adults. Dr David Stojdl, a
Senior Scientist at Childrens Hospital of Eastern Ontario
Research Institute in Ottawa, is designing a new treatment to
combat this disease. He is a world expert in the field of oncolytic
viruses, programmable viruses that target and kill cancer cells, as
well as stimulate the immune system. However, cancer cells have
proven expert at hiding from the immune system. Dr Stojdl has
designed an oncolytic virus specifically for the treatment of
glioblastoma multiforme. With this Impact Grant, he and his team
will boost the virus ability to stimulate the patients immune
system. If successful, this could vastly improve the outlook for
glioblastoma patients.

Dr Uri Tabori, The Hospital for Sick Children: DNA discovery could lead to early
detection
Cancer can exhibit relentless growth and relapse because
of the enhanced protection of its chromosome ends. Dr Uri
Tabori, an oncologist and Senior Scientist at The Hospital
for Sick Children, is a world expert in telomeres the
protective caps at the ends of DNA. He has discovered that
telomeres are maintained by a section of DNA called THOR.
In this project, he and his team will test whether detecting
THOR in a simple blood or urine test could detect cancer
early and predict relapse and survival, as well as
identifying new drugs to prevent relapse. This important
research could lead to new diagnostic and treatment
strategies with a focus on brain, prostate and bladder
cancer.

Dr Michael Taylor, The Hospital for Sick Children: Helping children avoid life-
long treatment effects
Children diagnosed with medulloblastoma the most
common childhood brain cancer are often left with
long-term effects from the intensive treatment. Dr
Michael Taylor, a pediatric neurosurgeon and Senior
Scientist at The Hospital for Sick Children, previously
discovered that medulloblastoma is not one disease,
but four, each with a different genetic footprint. Now,
Dr Taylor aims to identify a way to predict the
aggressiveness of these different cancer subtypes. He
has gathered an unprecedented collection of tumour
samples from 80 cities around the world. He and his
team will study how different medulloblastomas vary
from one another and how each tumour changes in
response to treatment. This important work will help
identify which children have high-risk cancers

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requiring the most aggressive treatments, versus those that can receive a
gentler treatment regimen.

About the Canadian Cancer Society

The Canadian Cancer Society is the largest national charitable funder of cancer
research in Canada. Thanks to our generous donors and our rigorous, gold-
standard peer-review process, we are funding hundreds of researchers in
universities, hospitals and research centres across Canada. The Society has the
most impact, against the most cancers, in the most communities in Canada.
Together we are discovering new ways to change cancer forever. For more
information, visit cancer.ca or call our toll-free bilingual Cancer Information Service
at 1-888-939-3333 (TTY 1-866-786-3934). Make your gift today at cancer.ca.

About Brain Canada

Brain Canada is a national non-profit organization headquartered in Montreal,
Quebec, that enables and supports excellent, innovative, paradigm-changing brain
research in Canada. For more than one decade, Brain Canada has made the case
for the brain as a single, complex system with commonalities across the range of
neurological disorders, mental illnesses and addictions, brain and spinal cord
injuries. Looking at the brain as one system has underscored the need for
increased collaboration across disciplines and institutions, and a smarter way to
invest in brain research that is focused on outcomes that will benefit patients and
families. braincanada.ca

939-3333 (TTY: 1-866-786-3934).

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For more information, contact:

John Douglas
Canadian Cancer Society
204-227-1846
Jdouglas@mb.cancer.ca