New Investigator Biographies 2007

 

Alison Urton is the Group Administrator at the Canadian Cancer Trials Group and has been with the group since 2003. As the Group Administrator, Alison is responsible for providing administrative leadership and direction for the Group’s operations, both internally at Queen’s University and in the broader national and international clinical trials communities. Alison facilitates the development and implementation of the of the Group’s strategic direction as a key resource for the Director. This includes aligning compliance and trial conduct aspects with applicable regulations, guidelines, and standard operating procedures.

 

Dr. O'Callaghan received his Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine and MSc and PhD degrees in Epidemiology from the University of Guelph, based on work conducted on the epidemiology of infections of livestock while a Medical Research Council of Canada Fellow at the International Livestock Research Institute in Nairobi, Kenya. He continued his research and training in infectious diseases epidemiology as a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow at the University of Warwick. In 2001 he joined the Canadian Cancer Trials Group where he continues to oversee the Gastrointestinal and Brain Site Committees as Senior Investigator. He is also a Professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences. His research interests are diverse and include clinical trials design and methodology and infectious disease epidemiology.

 

Elizabeth Eisenhauer is Director of the Canadian Cancer Trials Group Investigational New Drug Program based at Queen’s University in Kingston ON Canada. She also holds an appointment as a Professor in the Department of Oncology at Queen’s. She obtained her MD at Queen’s and went on to train in Internal Medicine and Hematology, obtaining fellowships from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons (Canada) in 1980 and 1981.
Her main research interest and activity is the coordination of phase I and II trials of a wide range of novel anticancer agents through the Canadian Cancer Trials Group network of investigators. She has served on numerous national and international committees in the area of oncology research.
In 1998 she was the Michel Clavel Award lecturer at the NCI-EORTC Symposium on New Drugs in Cancer Treatment held in Amsterdam. In 2002 she was awarded the O. Harold Warwick Prize by the National Cancer Institute of Canada that recognizes a scientist whose research has had a major impact in Cancer Control in Canada. In 2010 The Society of Gynecologic Oncology of Canada (GOC) presented Dr. Eisenhauer with the GOC Presidential Medal Award in recognition of her outstanding contributions to gynecologic oncology in Canada and Abroad.
From June 2006-February 2009 she was president of the National Cancer Institute of Canada. She has served on the Board of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the Canadian Cancer Society, the Ontario Cancer Research Institute, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Institute of Cancer Research is a member of the Scientific Audit Committee of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer. In 2008 she became co-Chair of the Canadian Cancer Research Alliance and Chair of the Research Action Group of the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer.

 

After receiving a Master's Degree in Virology at the University of Quebec, Dr. Richardson received a PhD in Epidemiology & Biostatistics at McGill University, where she studied the natural history of human papillomavirus infections and cervical neoplasia. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. Kristan Aronson (CCE Div.) in 2004, working on several projects devoted to assessing the relationship between exposure to suspected carcinogens (both environmental and occupational) and the risk of certain cancers, including breast and lung cancer. In 2004, she accepted a position as Assistant Professor in the Department of Community Health & Epidemiology and joined the Canadian Cancer Trials Group where she is a project coordinator for clinical trials designed to evaluate the role of selected agents in chemoprevention.

 

Dr. Janet Dancey is Director, Clinical Translational Research Canadian Cancer Trials Group Trials, Program Leader, High Impact Clinical Trials, Ontario Institute for Cancer Research; Chair, Experimental Therapeutics Network, Cancer Care Ontario; and Professor, Department of Oncology, Queen's University.
Among her duties are to coordinate translational research activities for the Canadian Cancer Trials Group and to foster and support translation research in clinical trials across the province of Ontario. Among her National and International activities, Chair, Biomarker Task Force for the Investigational Drug Steering Committee, Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program (CTEP), US National Cancer Institute (US-NCI) and Member of the US-NCI Program for the Assessment of Clinical Cancer Tests. Prior to joining the Canadian Cancer Trials Group, Dr. Dancey was Associate Chief, Investigational Drug Branch, CTEP, US-NCI where she coordinated the development of over 200 phase 1-3 trials of experimental therapeutics, including trials of novel targeted agent combinations and biomarker studies. Dr. Dancey received her MD (Magna cum Laude) from the University of Ottawa and completed her residency training in internal medicine and medical oncology at the University of Toronto. In 1994-95, she was a research fellow with the Canadian Cancer Trials Group and continued her fellowship training at the Institut Gustave Roussy in France. Dr. Dancey has special expertise in new anti-cancer drug development, linking drug and biomarker development, and associated clinical trials methodology. She is the author of co-author of over 100 publications in peer-review journals, 100 abstracts presented at scientific meetings and 15 book chapters. She has been an invited speaker at numerous local, national and international meetings, and has been Chair for development therapeutics and biomarker sessions for ASCO and AACR Annual Meetings, and EORTC-NCI-AACR Molecular Targets Meetings.

 

Dr. Kathleen Pritchard’s research interests include clinical trials and translational approaches in the areas of adjuvant therapy, hormonal therapy, chemotherapy and optimal locoregional therapy for breast cancer. From 1994-2008, Dr. Pritchard served as Chair of the Canadian Cancer Trials Group Trials Breast Cancer Site Committee.
In 2005, Dr. Pritchard was awarded the O. Harold Warwick Prize for Cancer Control in Canada by the Canadian Cancer Society and the former National Cancer Institute of Canada for her work in clinical and translational trials in breast cancer. She is currently the Clinical Co-Chair of the Early Breast Cancer Trialists Collaborative Group (EBCTCG) Oxford Overview.
Dr. Pritchard is a Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto, with cross-appointments in the Departments of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation and Public Health Sciences. She is Clinical Director of the Ontario Clinical Oncology Group and Senior Scientist at the Sunnybrook Odette Regional Cancer Centre at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto.

 

Dr. Kim N. Chi is a medical oncologist at the Vancouver Cancer Centre, BC Cancer Agency and the Prostate Centre at Vancouver Hospital, and an Associate Professor of Medicine with the University of British Columbia with a research focus on novel therapeutics and genitourinary cancers. He is an experienced investigator on the design and conduct of clinical trials and holds peer reviewed grant funding from the U.S. Department of Defense, the Canadian Cancer Society/Canadian Cancer Trials Group, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Terry Fox Research Institute and the Prostate Cancer Research Foundation. He has collaborated with investigator cooperative groups nationally and internationally as well as with industry partners from small biotechnology start-ups to large pharmaceutical companies for the investigation of novel agents from the pre-clinical stage to registration phase III studies. At the BC Cancer Agency, he currently is the Medical Director for the Clinical Trials Unit and chairs the provincial Genitourinary Cancer Systemic Therapy Group. For the Canadian Cancer Trials Group, he serves on the executive committee of the Genitourinary Disease Site, chairs the Advanced Prostate Cancer Disease Oriented Group and chair for the Investigational New Drug Program. He is also a member of the US NCI CTEP Prostate Cancer Task Force Committee.

 

 

Lillian Siu is a staff Medical Oncologist at Princess Margaret Hospital since 1998, and is a Professor at the University of Toronto. She is the Director of the Phase I Program and Co-Director of the Robert and Maggie Bras and Family Drug Development Program at Princess Margaret Hospital. Dr. Siu’s major research focus is in the area of new anticancer drug development, particularly with respect to phase I trials and head and neck malignancies. In 2009, she has been awarded a Cancer Care Ontario Chair in Experimental Therapeutics. In 2010, Dr. Siu was awarded by the US NCI the Michaele C.Christian Award in Oncology Drug Development. In addition, she is the principal investigator of the Princess Margaret Hospital Phase I Consortium, supported by a grant from the United States National Cancer Institute. Dr. Siu was the Chair for 2010 ASCO Grants Selection Committee, and is Co-Chair of the 2012 AACR Annual Meeting Program Committee. Dr. Siu has a strong interest in clinical trial methodology and has been one of the course directors of the ECCO/ASCO/AACR workshop in Flims, Switzerland. Dr. Siu has published over 120 peer-reviewed manuscripts and serves on the editorial board of Journal of Clinical Oncology, Cancer Discovery, European Journal of Cancer and Investigational New Drugs.

 

Dr. Shepherd is a Professor in the Department of Pathology & Molecular Medicine. She completed her medical school training at McGill and spent three years in England where her interest in hematology developed. She completed her training as a Hematopathologist at the University of Ottawa and came to Kingston in 1987. Dr. Shepherd is currently the Director of the Transfusion Medicine Service & Immunology at Kingston General Hospital. Since 1989, Dr. Shepherd has worked with the Canadian Cancer Trials Group as a Physician Coordinator. Her focus has been in Haematology and Breast Cancer as well as the development of the National Tumor/Tissue Repositiory associated with the Canadian Cancer Trials Group and correlative studies in clinical trials.

 

Mark Levine is Chair and Professor in the Department of Oncology with a cross-appointment in Clinical Epidemiology & Biostatistics, at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. He holds the Buffett Taylor Chair in Breast Cancer Research at McMaster University. He is a past recipient of the O. Harold Warwick Prize (1999) from the National Cancer Institute of Canada. Dr. Levine received his medical degree from McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and completed his residency in internal medicine at McMaster University. He completed his training in hematology and oncology at Duke University Medical Centre, Durham, North Carolina, USA. In addition, Dr. Levine received a master’s degree in clinical epidemiology and biostatistics from McMaster University.
In 1982, Dr. Levine became a member of both the Faculty of Health Sciences at McMaster University, and a medical oncologist at the Hamilton Regional Cancer Centre (now known as the Juravinski Cancer Centre - Hamilton Health Sciences). He was CEO of the Cancer Centre between 1992 and 1999. Over the past 25 years he has been an active researcher in clinical trials and health services research. His focus is in the areas of breast cancer and venous thromboembolism. A number of the trials he has conducted have impacted on health care in both Canada and internationally. He helped establish the Ontario Clinical Oncology Group (OCOG) in 1982. Dr. Levine has over 220 publications in peer-reviewed journals and has brought much research funding to McMaster. He is Director of the Clinical Trials Methodology Group (CTMG) of the Henderson Research Centre. He was Chairman of Health Canada’s Steering Committee on Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Care and Treatment of Breast Cancer. Dr. Levine is currently an Associate Editor for the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

 

Dr. Michael Brundage is a professor of oncology and of community health and epidemiology at Queen’s University and is the Head of the Radiation Treatment Program at the Cancer Centre of Southeastern Ontario at Kingston General Hospital. He has a busy clinical practice, a post-graduate teaching portfolio, and research programs in medical decision-making, the design and analysis of clinical trials, and the use of quality of life outcome assessments. He trained in Radiation Oncology at Princess Margaret Hospital, and completed an M.Sc. in Community Health and Epidemiology at Queen’s University. Brundage joined the Department of Oncology at Queen’s in 1991 and became a founding member of the staff of the Radiation Oncology Research Unit (1992), now a division of the Queen’s Cancer Research Institute. Brundage co-directs the clinical decision making group of Research Unit and is co-chair of the Quality of Life Committee of Canadian Cancer Trials Group. He has over 200 published papers and abstracts in the peer-reviewed literature.

 

Dr. Tsao is a Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology at the University of Toronto, the M. Qasim Choksi Chair of Lung Cancer Translational Research Program, consultant thoracic pathologist and Senior Scientist at Princess Margaret Hospital/Ontario Cancer Institute. He is the co-Chair of the Correlative Science and Tumor Biology Committee of the Canadian Cancer Trials Group, Associate Editor of the Journal of Thoracic Oncology, Editorial Board Member of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, and members of the International Association for Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) Committees in Pathology and in Staging (Biology Factors). Together with Dr. Stephen Lam, he co-leads the Pan-Canadian Lung Cancer Early Detection Study supported by the Terry Fox Research Institute and the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer. He is also Director of The Terry Fox Foundation Strategic Health Research Training Program in Molecular Pathology of Cancer at CIHR www.molecularpathology.ca

 

Dr. Ralph Meyer received his medical degree from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario in 1978. He completed a rotating internship at Ottawa General Hospital and residency training in Internal Medicine (1982) and Hematology (1984) at McMaster University. He joined the Department of Medicine, McMaster University in 1984 where his academic interests included clinical trials and implications for health policy in the hematologic malignancies. Dr. Meyer was Professor in the Department of Medicine, Associate Member in the Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine and Division Director of Hematology (2000 – 2006) at McMaster University, and Head of Hematology–Oncology at the Juravinski Cancer Centre. He previously chaired the Hematology Site Committee of the Canadian Cancer Trials Group and the Hematology Disease Site Group, Cancer Care Ontario Practice Guidelines Initiative, and was a co-editor in the Malignant Hematology Group of the Cochrane Collaboration. Dr. Meyer has previously sat on the editorial boards of Cancer Treatment Reviews and the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
In April 2006, Dr. Meyer joined the Canadian Cancer Trials Group as Director Designate and in 2007 became the Group’s Director. Currently, Dr. Meyer is the Edith Eisenhauer Chair in Clinical Cancer Research, Professor in the Departments of Oncology, Medicine and Community Health and Epidemiology at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, and Hematologist at the Kingston General Hospital and Cancer Centre of Southeastern Ontario.

 

Wendy Parulekar is a graduate of the University of Ottawa Medical School where she also completed residency training in Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology (1996). This was followed by a fellowship in Clinical Pharmacology at the Toronto Sunnybrook Regional Cancer Centre. Since 1999, she has held a joint clinical/research position at Queen’s University. Within the Canadian Cancer Trials Group, she acts as Physician Coordinator for national and international studies in carcinoma of the breast, head and neck and genitourinary systems and is Chair of the Education Committee. In addition to her involvement in national and international scientific advisory committees, she is an active participant in the SPIRIT initiative whose goal is to define standard protocol items for randomized trials and is an associate editor for the journal Clinical Trials. In 2011, she was named a Fellow of the Society for Clinical Trials.
Her academic interests include the methodology of efficient clinical trial design and conduct from a non-statistician’s perspective and the art and science of mentoring in academic medicine.