Louisa Ho knows cancer.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s seen it up close, through the lens of a microscope.<\/p>\n
For years, she fought the disease as a researcher.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, she\u2019ll help others fight for a cure by running in the annual Terry Fox Run.<\/p>\n
\u201cTerry Fox\u2019s journey is a great Canadian story that\u2019s inspirational and shows people that you really can do anything,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The Brock University commercialization research officer is part of a group of staff and students taking part in the annual 5km run.<\/p>\n
\u201cI started running because I wanted to find different avenues of giving back,\u201d Ho said. \u201cIt\u2019s another way for me to help find the cure for cancer.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Ho was doing her PhD she researched <\/span>how <\/span>bone cancer <\/span>develops <\/span>in children and later worked on research projects <\/span>developing novel cancer<\/span> immun<\/span>o<\/span>therap<\/span>ies<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n All of the research she worked on was supported by money from the Terry Fox Institute.<\/p>\n Martin Tammem\u00e4gi, professor of epidemiology in Brock University\u2019s department of Health Sceinces, has been involved in a large-scale research study since 2008 made possible with $7 million from the Terry Fox Institute, $408,000 of which came to Tammem\u00e4gi. Brock received more than $500,000 funding in total from the Terry Fox Institute.<\/span><\/p>\n The study is looking at earlier detection of lung cancer.<\/p>\n \u201cLung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in Canada,\u201d he said. \u201cMost lung cancers are diagnosed at a late stage.\u201d<\/p>\n Tammem\u00e4gi\u2019s risk calculation software can reduce surgical procedures by helping doctors know if nodules showing up on CT lung scans have a high probability of being cancerous. It\u2019s being used around the world and was developed thanks to the funding.<\/p>\n When a nodule shows up on a CT scan, clinicians or radiologists will enter its details into Tammem\u00e4gi\u2019s calculator, including: size; location; whether the nodule is solid, semi-solid or looks like ground glass; and whether it has a bumpy surface.<\/p>\n Additional data – age, gender, family history, history of lung cancer, history of emphysema – are entered into the calculator. With all these factors, the calculator then estimates the probability of the nodule being cancerous.<\/p>\n Tammem\u00e4gi and his team published this groundbreaking research in the New England Journal of Medicine<\/em> on September 5, 2013. The research paper is called \u201cProbability of Cancer in Pulmonary Nodules Detected on First Screening Computed Tomography.\u201d<\/p>\n Tammem\u00e4gi said of the 2,537 people in the study, 180 were found to have lung cancer.<\/p>\n \u201cWe did see that the majority of the individuals who we found had lung cancer, we found it at an early stage,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThat money was critical. If we didn\u2019t have that funding, we wouldn\u2019t have done that study.\u201d<\/p>\n The run is Sunday in Port Dalhousie. Registration is at 9 a.m. and the run is at 10 a.m.<\/p>\n