New Investigator Biographies 2011

 

Bernie Eigl is a medical oncologist at the Tom Baker Cancer Centre (TBCC) in Calgary, AB. He is the medical director of the TBCC clinical research unit, and the acting director of the Alberta Clinical Cancer Research Unit (ACCRU). His research interests are in genitourinary and early phase clinical research as well as health services research.

 

Bingshu Chen joined the Canadian Cancer Trials Group as senior biostatistician and assistant professor in the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, Queen's University in July 2008. Dr. Chen completed his Ph. D. in biostatistics at the University of Waterloo, then spent four years at the United States National Cancer Institute in the Biostatistics Branch, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, first as a Postdoctoral Fellow and then as a Research Fellow. He was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Concordia University from 2007 to 2008. His research interests are survival analysis, statistics computation, design and analysis of clinical trials and cancer epidemiology

 

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.

 

Dr. Tu is a Senior Biostatistician in the Canadian Cancer Trials Group with appointments in both the Departments of Community Health & Epidemiology, and Mathematics & Statistics. He came to Queen's in 1996 from the Therapeutic Products Directorate of Health Canada. His primary responsibilities are the design, management and analysis of the cancer clinical trials. He is also interested in the methodological research on the development and evaluation of statistical procedures for the design and analysis of cancer clinical trials and maintains an interest in the general mathematical theory of statistics.

 

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.

 

Dr. Janet Dancey is Director, Clinical Translational Research Canadian Cancer Trials Group, 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. Ringash is an associate professor of Radiation Oncology at the University of Toronto, and a staff radiation oncologist at the Princess Margaret Hospital. She is cross appointed to the Department of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. She previously served as Associate Programme Director for the graduate programme in Clinical Epidemiology.
Dr. Ringash obtained her BSc in Chemistry at McMaster University in 1990, and went on to obtain her MD in 1993. She trained in Radiation Oncology at McMaster University and the Hamilton Regional Cancer Centre, where she was Chief Resident from 1996-97. After obtaining her FRCP(C) in 1997, she was a clinical fellow in radiation oncology at the Princess Margaret Hospital, and simultaneously completed her MSc in Clinical Epidemiology at the University of Toronto in 1999. In 2010/11, she completed a 12 month sabbatical, which involved visits to 43 countries.
Dr. Ringash is currently co-Chair of the Quality of Life committee at the Canadian Cancer Trials Group. Her research interests include the quality of life of cancer patients, clinical decision making, and the treatment of head and neck and GI malignancies. She has a special interest in upper GI malignancies, including esophagus and stomach cancers.

 

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.

 

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. Norman Viner is Chief of the Clinical Trials Division, Centre for Evaluation of Radiopharmaceuticals and Biotherapeutics (CERB), Biologic and Genetic Therapies Directorate (BGTD), Health Canada.
He has been managing the team of reviewers who are responsible for reviewing the clinical aspects of the applications made to the Centre since 2004. This includes the applications involving Radiopharmaceuticals, Biotherapeutic Products, Vaccines and Gene Therapies. These reviews utilize the principles of risk benefit analysis in applying the Canadian Food and Drug Regulations to the clinical trial applications which fall under the jurisdiction of this directorate.
He graduated from the University of Ottawa Medical School in 1981 and was in full time general practice in the Ottawa area for over 15 years. He remains on active staff at the Queensway Carleton Hospital in Ottawa and continues to practice Geriatric Medicine as a part-time hospitalist.
Prior to joining the Public Service, he conceived a potential smoking cessation therapy including the running of a pilot study at McMaster University, which involved the design, manufacturing and use of a prototype pharmaceutical product. He published several patents and a clinical research paper related to these efforts which lead to his joining Health Canada in1999.

 

Penny Bradbury is a medical oncologist; Assistant Professor within the Department of Oncology at Queen’s University and holds a Cancer Care Ontario Research Chair in Experimental Therapeutics. She is a graduate of Cardiff University Medical School, UK. She undertook specialist medical oncology training at the MidCentral Regional Cancer Treatment Service in New Zealand, and at the Cancer Research UK Medical Oncology Department, Churchill Hospital, Oxford, UK, obtaining the FRACP in 2005. She undertook fellowship training in Thoracic Oncology at Princess Margaret Hospital, Toronto, and a one year Drug Development Fellowship with the Canadian Cancer Trials Group, as part of The Terry Fox Foundation Training Program in Transdisciplinary Cancer Research at Canadian Institutes of Health Research. She has a research interest in the evaluation of new therapies for the management of thoracic malignancies and clinical trial methodology. Within the Canadian Cancer Trials Group, she is the physician coordinator for the lung disease site and for National and International thoracic malignancy clinical trials.

 

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.