Conference: The Canadian Cancer Research Conference, November 5–7, 2018, Vancouver, Canada.
Conference Highlight: The Canadian Cancer Research Conference is one of the largest conferences in Canada that brings together work in multiple facets of cancer research under one roof.
Conference Summary: The Canadian Cancer Research Conference brought together basic biology and clinical studies under one platform. Several interesting findings were showcased in the conference spanning over multiple areas of cancer research, including DNA damage, cellular metabolism, tumour microenvironment, hypoxia and immunology. Studies addressed the current clinical limitations, which gives a global depiction of current treatments and their scope of improvement.
Several presentations focused on the translational potential of research underway in a basic biology research environment. Work presented on DNA damage and repair mechanisms was very interesting and fruitful for my work. Interesting and unconventional findings were presented by Durocher et al. (2017) and Masson et al. (2017) on DNA damage mechanisms and cellular survival. Several findings were presented on tumour microenvironments and hypoxia, which helped in understanding mechanisms of drug resistance and developing new targets. Also, several talks about PD-1 as an immunotherapy target were very informative. Several studies focused on drugs under trial collaboratively in hospitals across Canada, one of which was presented by Chi et al. (2017).
The focus and scope of the conference significantly highlighted the collaborative efforts of basic and clinical research. It aimed to direct the focus of research groups towards translational significance of the latest findings. The conference also included sessions for young trainees to interact with experts from industry as well as academia so as to make them aware of their future career choices. To summarize, the Canadian Cancer Research Conference provided a collaborative environment for all the researchers across and outside of Canada. It also provided trainees with a platform to present their work and benefit from the expertise of others.