OTTAWA — It took John Bell more than a decade to turn his cancer-killing virus into a treatment that could be tested in patients. And it could take another two years before Bell and his research team know for sure if the genetically engineered virus destroys tumours effectively.

But with a new lab about to open at The Ottawa Hospital Cancer Centre, Bell expects that for future medical discoveries, the road to early-stage testing could be shortened dramatically, giving patients a faster route to experimental therapies to fight cancer.

“Instead of 10 years, it would be down to two years,” said Bell, a senior scientist at the affiliated Ottawa Hospital Research Institute.

The expanded third floor of the cancer centre is still an active construction zone, although new lab benches have been installed and a dozen offices carved out. But by

October, when work on the $15.8-million lab is due to be completed, the facility will finally allow cancer researchers to develop and refine their discoveries under one roof.

And for the first time, all the specialized facilities and equipment will be in place for researchers to test experimental therapies for their safety and effectiveness in patients.

Such tests, an exhaustive effort in three phases, require labs to follow the strict standards of drug regulators such as Health Canada and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Regulation manufacturing suites are needed to handle the experimental drugs, while self-contained testing suites are required to analyze genetic and tumour samples collected from patients.

In short, the new facility will enable researchers to shepherd their own discoveries through a longer section of the drug-development pipeline.

“As far as cancer-drug development is concerned, we’ll finally be able to do everything onsite, from target validation to Phase 3 clinical trials, which is really fantastic given that 10 years ago, we couldn’t do any of that,” said Dr. Glen Goss, a medical oncologist and one of the researchers who will benefit from the new lab.

The state-of-the-art facility will also allow the institute to compete with top-ranked cancer research centres such Toronto’s Princess Margaret Hospital, Montreal’s Jewish General Hospital and Vancouver’s B.C. Cancer Agency.

Mike McBurney, director of Ottawa’s cancer-research program, said having a world-class lab, where scientists and oncologists work side by side, makes it easier to recruit young talent.

“This creates a melting pot, where if you want to have coffee, you’re going to have to talk to somebody from either the clinical or laboratory side,” said McBurney. “And those kinds of unstructured discussions are what breed discoveries and innovation.”

More than 300 scientists, oncologists, technicians and graduate students work cheek-by-jowl in the existing research lab. The expanded facility allows McBurney to plan for as many as 100 more people to be hired over the next five years.

The new lab lays the groundwork for the cancer centre’s plan to position Ottawa as a hub of “translational research,” that critical stage at which scientists attempt to turn medical discoveries into useful therapies for patients.

Researchers call it the “bench-to-bedside” approach.

According to McBurney, nine out of 10 discoveries languish in the lab, never to be turned into actual treatments. Federal and provincial governments agree and have pumped in millions of new dollars to help bring more medical discoveries to market.

Under the federal Conservatives, $32 million has flowed to Ottawa researchers for new labs and equipment — the single largest health grant awarded to the city’s researchers. An additional $18.5 million has come from the provincial Liberals. The cancer centre has been a major beneficiary, receiving a total of $16.3 million, with most of it going to support work on Bell’s tumour-killing virus, known as JX594.

The virus, genetically engineered from a version used to vaccinate against smallpox, has been designed to kill cancer cells, but spare normal ones. This means it can be injected into tumours in heavy doses without causing harm to the patient. Experience with the new drug is too short to permit any conclusion about its ultimate effectiveness, but physicians who have used it are encouraged so far.

Bell said his team has at least 20 other viruses with cancer-fighting potential under development, meaning more clinical trials are planned in the coming years.

Meanwhile, Goss and his collaborators are planning a clinical trial of their own in the new lab. Starting this fall, the team will test whether statins, drugs normally used to lower cholesterol levels, can be used to fight cancer in combination with Tarceva, a new-generation lung-cancer therapy.

Tarceva entered the cancer arsenal in the past few years after studies showed it lengthened survival among patients who didn’t respond to other treatments. It’s among a new wave of “targeted therapies” that zero in on particular cells and cell processes closely tied to the growth or spread of tumours.

For some patients, these treatments are more effective and have more tolerable side effects than traditional chemotherapy, which attacks both healthy and cancerous cells in the hopes of wiping out the cancerous ones.

Biochemist Jim Dimitroulakos, one of Goss’s collaborators, has done test-tube and animal studies showing that when used in combination, Tarceva and statins have the potential to shrink tumours.

The trial, being conducted with fellow biochemist Ian Lorimer, is expected to involve up to 40 patients with lung, head or neck cancer. As an experimental therapy that has not yet been approved by government regulators, the trial is restricted to patients who have exhausted conventional treatments.

By the Numbers

$15.8 million — Total cost of new lab

$6.3 million — Federal government contribution

$9.5 million — Money to come from fundraising

$10 million — Funding for clinical trials into cancer-killing viruses and other anti-cancer therapies to come from Ontario government

$750,000 — Funding for clinical trials into cancer-killing viruses and other anti-cancer therapies to come from drug-maker Roche

ptam@thecitizen.canwest.com