$4M for cancer research chair at UBC

Vancouver, BC – British Columbia is providing $4 million to the Canadian Cancer Society to endow a research chair in the primary prevention of cancer at the University of British Columbia.

The chair in cancer primary prevention at UBC will help develop a national cancer prevention strategy by researching the links between diet, exercise, body weight, stress, and environmental carcinogens and specific types of cancer.

“This chair will be unique, both in North America and internationally, as it will focus on the primary prevention of cancer and not on preventing the reoccurrence of cancer,” says Murray Coell, the province’s advanced education minister.

The $4 million in provincial funding will be made available from the Ministry of Advanced Education, and the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation has also committed to provide an additional $750,000 towards the chair.