Master\u2019s student Meera Mahmud is passionate about lung cancer research.<\/p>\n
Her eyes light up when she describes how her supervisor, Professor of Health Sciences Martin Tammemagi, has come up with a lung cancer risk prediction model<\/a> that is highly effective in catching the disease in its early stages when combined with screening and follow-up.<\/p>\n Mahmud\u2019s studies involve fine-tuning the model that Tammemagi created \u2014 thanks to funding from the Terry Fox Research Institute<\/a> (TFRI).<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been really surprised and happy with all the work that has been done towards cancer research, especially lung cancer,\u201d says Mahmud. \u201cI\u2019m grateful to be part of efforts to help Canada have a new system of identifying people who are at high risk through a public practice for lung cancer screening.\u201d<\/p>\n Mahmud will be among speakers at the St. Catharines Terry Fox Run on Sunday, Sept. 16 at Lakeside Park in Port Dalhousie.<\/p>\n The Terry Fox Run<\/a> takes place in cities and towns across Canada to raise money for cancer research. Fox was a young athlete whose leg was amputated because of cancer. He ran for 143 days and 5,373 kilometres to raise money for cancer research before succumbing to lung cancer in 1981.<\/p>\n Some of that cancer research is being conducted at Brock University.<\/p>\n Tammamagi is co-principal investigator in the TFRI-funded $1.9-million project \u201cThe Terry Fox Pan-Canadian Early Detection of Lung Cancer Study: Extension<\/em>,\u201d with $106,000 of that money going to research being conducted at Brock.<\/p>\n Building on earlier studies, this project was announced in 2017 and will run until 2022. The idea is to detect lung cancer at an early, potentially curable stage by encouraging people at risk to go for lung cancer screening and improving lung cancer screening programs.<\/p>\n