Cheng-Han Lee Sawin-Baldwin Chair in Ovarian Cancer
Cheng-Han Lee dedicated the first decade of his career to uncovering the genetic drivers for gynecological cancers. His work on uterine cancer led to the recognition of a new cancer type that was subsequently adopted in the World Health Organization classification system for tumours of the female reproductive system.
As the Sawin-Baldwin Chair in Ovarian Cancer, Lee now works with a multidisciplinary research team including scientists, surgeons, oncologists and pathologists across different centres in Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Quebec, focusing on gynecologic cancers that are most aggressive and most in need of therapeutic advancement.
His research team studies ovarian cancer as well as related cancer types, including those of the fallopian tube and uterus, which are among the most common cancers that affect women after breast cancer and colorectal cancer.
By devoting his research to the study of these aggressive cancers which currently do not have effective treatment, Lee – a consulting pathologist at Royal Alexandra Hospital and an associate professor of laboratory medicine and pathology – hopes to improve the lives of patients who need the most help. He and his team have identified a number of key molecular changes found in several aggressive cancer types, allowing him to create better experimental models to test the effectiveness of potential cancer treatments, thus enabling precision medicine through precision preclinical models.
His research has already changed the way these aggressive cancer types are diagnosed clinically and he hopes to make further therapeutic advances to match the most effective treatment to patients with the most susceptible cancer.
Interested individuals can connect with Lee here.
The endowed chair is supported through a generous gift from the Alberta Women’s Health Foundation.