Helen Chan

Research Synopsis

Dr. Chan’s major focus of research is in the area of multidrug resistance in childhood cancers, and especially in the field of the rare childhood eye cancer retinoblastoma, both in the laboratory and in the clinical arena. Dr. Chan’s Laboratory is focusing on the biologic and genetic events that “drive” pediatric cancer progression. Dr. Chan is the acknowledged expert who brought about the worldwide resurgence of the use of chemotherapy for the treatment of retinoblastoma, thereby greatly improving the results of saving the eyes, vision and lives of young children with retinoblastoma, and avoiding radiation-induced secondary cancers and cosmetic deformities. Collaborating with Drs. Brenda Gallie and Elise Heon, Dr. Chan is currently the Principal Investigator, Originator, and Coordinator of a 2003-2009 Ontario Institute for Cancer Research-funded and 2010-2012 Terry Fox Research Institute-funded International Multicenter Trial in using the reversal of multidrug resistance to improve the response, without increasing the toxicity, of chemotherapy for children with retinoblastoma, a successful treatment in which she has already shown on a smaller scale in clinical trials at the Hospital for Sick Children since 1991. Dr. Chan co-directs the world-renown Retinoblastoma Program with Dr. Gallie, and is consulted on retinoblastoma problems worldwide. From 1990 to 1996, Dr. Chan held a National Cancer Institute of Canada (NCIC) Research Scientist Career Award, from 1991-1994, a NCIC Terry Fox Program Expansion Award, and from 1993-1996, a Terry Fox Program Project Award in which she was Co-Principal Investigator with Dr. Victor Ling. She has published extensively in many areas, and in 2007 had a book published by the University Press of Mississippi, “Understanding Cancer Therapies”. Together with Dr. Gallie, Dr. Chan has expanded her retinoblastoma her work globally, in the “One Retinoblastoma World” Program, to help end death and blindness from retinoblastoma starting in Kenya and expanding to Africa and the less developed world. On January 28, 2010, Lieutenant Governor David C. Onley awarded Dr. Chan with the Order Of Ontario. Dr. Chan was one of 29 appointees receiving Ontario's Highest Honor in 2010, with this official citation, “Dr. Helen Chan of Toronto, an internationally renowned clinical oncologist, is recognized for her breakthrough treatment of retinoblastoma in children, a rare cancer of the eyes”.