EXECUTIVES & FACULTY

Dr. Peter Black is a Senior Research Scientist at the Vancouver Prostate Centre and Professor in the Department of Urologic Sciences at the University of British Columbia. He has a translational research interest in bladder cancer with a focus on resistance to chemotherapy and immunotherapy and the development of novel targeted therapies to overcome resistance.

Dr. Black is Surgical Oncology Co-Chair of the NCI Bladder Cancer Task Force and Chair of the AUA Research Grants & Investigator Support Committee. He is Chair of the Canadian Bladder Cancer Network and General Secretary of the International Bladder Cancer Network. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Société Internationale d’Urologie Journal.

M.D. Technical University of Munich, Germany 1995
Internal Medicine, University of Tuebingen 2001
Hematology/Oncology, University of Tuebingen, 2003
Fellow, Royal College of Physicians & Surgeons of Canada 2008

Christian Kollmannsberger, MD, FRCPC, is staff medical oncologist at the British Columbia Cancer Agency (BCCA) Vancouver Cancer Centre and Clinical Professor at the University of British Columbia. He graduated from the Technical University in Munich, Germany and received his clinical training in Internal Medicine, Hematology and Medical Oncology, mainly at University of Tuebingen, Germany.

Dr. Kollmannsberger's research is concentrated on genitourinary malignancies with a special interest in testicular and renal cell cancer. His research is focused on the investigation of mechanisms of treatment resistance, the development of novel treatment options and biomarkers, including miRNA-371/375 and others for testicular cancer.

Nationally and internationally, he has contributed to numerous trials in the field of renal cell carcinoma and testicular cancer. He has repeatedly served as faculty and member of the education/scientific committee for the Annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the ASCO Genitourinary Cancers Symposium, and the Annual Meeting of the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO).

Currently, Dr. Kollmannsberger serves as chair of the BC Cancer Provincial Genitourinary Tumor Group, chair for the Genitourinary Systemic Therapy Clinical Trials Unit at BC Cancer Vancouver Centre, chair for the Canadian Clinical Trials Group Testis Cancer Disease Oriented Group, and member of the Canadian Clinical Trials Group Kidney Cancer Disease Oriented Group.

Dr. Krista Noonan is a medical oncologist specializing in genitourinary and thoracic malignancies at BC Cancer, Surrey Centre and a clinical assistant professor at the University of British Columbia. She is the BC GU Systemic Chair. She received a BSc in Biochemistry and an MD from Memorial University, Newfoundland in 2008 followed by a residency in Internal Medicine. Dr. Noonan subsequently completed her Medical Oncology and Thoracic Oncology fellowships at the BC Cancer Vancouver, as well as a diploma in Clinical Epidemiology from Memorial University. She enjoys teaching a mentoring students and residents. Her research interests’ focus are in genitourinary and thoracic malignancies and health services research.

Bio to come

Arman Rahmim, PhD, FSNMMI is Professor of Radiology, Physics and Biomedical Engineering at UBC, as well as Distinguished Scientist and Provincial Medical Imaging Physicist at BC Cancer. He received his PhD in medical imaging physics at UBC. Following doctoral studies, he was recruited by Johns Hopkins University (JHU), leading the high resolution PET imaging physics program and pursuing research at the JHU Departments of Radiology and Electrical Engineering. In 2018, he was recruited back to Vancouver, where his laboratory (Qurit Lab) pursues research in molecular imaging & therapy. He has published a book and over 250 journal articles, and delivered more than 150 invited lectures worldwide. He has participated as principal investigator on a range of funded research efforts towards quantitative imaging and personalized therapies. He is also Scientific Lead of the BC Cancer Medical Imaging Core (CanMIC) Lab, aiming to translate state-of-the-art imaging solutions to clinical trials and research. Dr. Rahmim was awarded in 2016 the John S. Laughlin Young Scientist Award by the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM), in 2022 the Presidential Distinguished Service Award by the Society of Nuclear Medicine & Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) for significant contributions to the field of nuclear medicine & molecular imaging, was Vice President (2017-18) and President (2018-19) of the SNMMI Physics, Instrumentation and Data Sciences Council (PIDSC), and is Chair of the SNMMI Artificial Intelligence (AI) Task Force (2020-).

A graduate from the McMaster University Urology Residency Program in 2014. Employed as a community based urologist since August 2014 and the current head of the Division of Urology at UHNBC in Prince George, BC.

Head of Surgery Surrey Memorial Hospital 2017 to present

Active privileges SMH, Jim Pattison Outpatient Surgical Centre and Delta Hospital and Valley Surgical Centre
Strong clinical interest in Urologic Oncology, benign prostate disease, female and male incontinence, as well as stone disease.

EDUCATION
Urology Residency UBC 1992-1995
Cardiac Surgery Assistant, St Paul’s Hospital 1991-1992
General Surgery Residency 1990-1991
General Practitioner, Prince George 1989-1990
Rotating Internship, St. Paul’s Hospital 1987-1988
University of Alberta Medical School , MD 1984-1987

Bachelor of Science Degree U of A (Pscychology) 1980-1984

Clinical Assistant Professor,
University of British Columbia
Medical Oncologist,
BC Cancer,
Victoria, BC

Medical Oncologist at BC Cancer Abbotsford and Clinical Assistant Professor at UBC. Drug Development Fellowship at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre.

Clinical Assistant Professor UBC
Division of Medical Oncology
Vancouver, BC

Dr. Ardashes Avanessian graduated from the National University of Iran/Tehran in 1987 and completed Internal Medicine training in 1990 that led to specialization in Hematology/Oncology in 1998. Relocating to Toronto in 2001, Dr. Avanessian completed an Oncology Fellowship at Princess Margaret Hospital from 2002 to 2004. Royal College-certified in 2006, he joined the UBC Department of Medicine (2004-2005) and contributed to the BCCA Kamloops Cancer Clinic (2005-2013). Since 2013, he has been a part of the LGH community as a General Hematology and Oncology practitioner with a special interest in lymphoproliferative and genitourinary malignancies.

BC Cancer Agency
Medical RO Lead of Clinical Trial Unit
Spine SABR Lead
Vancouver Island

Dr. Bains completed her internal medicine training at MUN (Nfld) in 2013. She then completed her medical oncology training at Dal (NS) in 2015. Dr. Banis worked as a locum medical oncologist in Halifax and St. John’s for the next 1.5 years. She then moved to the UK to do genitourinary and clinical trials fellowship at Guy’s Hospital in London until Sept 2018. Dr. Bains joined BC Cancer Kelowna in September 2019. Primary disease sites are GU and GYNE.

Dr. Andrew Bang is a radiation oncologist at BC Cancer Vancouver. He completed his residency at the University of Ottawa and fellowships in SABR and combination IO therapies at Princess Margaret Cancer Center and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Provincial Lead, Surgery, BC Cancer
Specialist in General and Colorectal Surgery, St. Paul's Hospital
Chair, Section of Colorectal Surgery, University of British Columbia

Dr. Carl Brown is a subspecialist colorectal surgical oncologist at Providence Health Care, Clinical Professor of Surgery at UBC and Provincial Lead for Surgical Oncology at BC Cancer. In 2006, he finished a fellowship in colorectal surgery and master's degree in clinical epidemiology at the University of Toronto and started practice at St. Paul's Hospital. As an academic, Dr. Brown has published over 100 papers on surgery for colorectal cancer, innovative techniques in cancer surgery and rectal cancer surgery quality improvement. In 2012, he was cited as one of Vancouver’s top 40 under 40 by Business in Vancouver magazine. In 2018, he co-chaired the first Canadian Rectal Cancer Surgery Standards committee of the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer (CPAC). An education enthusiast, he has taught courses in laparoscopic colorectal cancer surgery, TEM and TaTME.

Medical Oncologist,
Vancouver Cancer Centre and Vancouver Prostate Centre
Vancouver, BC

Dr. Chi is a medical oncologist, Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of BC Cancer and the Provincial Health Services Authority, which oversees a comprehensive cancer control program for the people of British Columbia (BC), in Canada. He is also Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia, a Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University, and the Shrum Chair in Prostate Cancer Research at BC Cancer.

Dr. Chi's research in the field of genitourinary cancers focuses on prostate cancer and investigational new drugs, where he has contributed to changing international standards of care practice for patients with advanced prostate cancer. He also has been investigating circulating tumour DNA as a source of prognostic and predictive biomarkers for patients with metastatic prostate cancer. Dr. Chi is the past-Chair of the Genitourinary Disease and Investigational New Drugs Site Committees with the Canadian Cancer Trials Group, and has held peer-reviewed grant funding from the Canada Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), National Cancer Institute of Canada (NCIC)/Canadian Cancer Society (CCS), the US Department of Defence, Movember, Prostate Cancer Foundation (USA), and Prostate Cancer Canada.
Dr. Chi is an author on over 290 articles in peer-reviewed journals including the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Annals of Oncology, Lancet Oncology, Cancer Discovery, Nature, and the New England Journal of Medicine.

Dr Crook did her medical training at the University of Toronto, Residency in Radiation Oncology at the Princess Margaret Hospital and is currently a Full Professor of Radiation Oncology at the University of British Columbia. She is a staff Radiation Oncologist in Kelowna BC where her main focus is GU malignancies. She has developed programs for US-planned HDR prostate brachytherapy, and HDR interstitial and surface mold penile brachytherapy and has lead clinical trials comparing HDR and LDR prostate brachytherapy in both the ”boost” and monotherapy scenarios. She is former President of the Board of the American Brachytherapy Society, recipient of the Thom Shanahan Distinguished Brachytherapy Educator Award and the ABS 2017 Henschke Award.

She is also the first to hold a Brachytherapy Research Chair position in British Columbia.

Nuclear Medicine Physician
Victoria, BC

Dr. James Curtis is a Diagnostic Radiologist and Nuclear Medicine Physician in Victoria, BC, where he serves as the Medical Lead for Nuclear Medicine in Island Health, overseeing 4 hospital Nuclear Medicine departments in community and tertiary care settings that are involved in both diagnostic Nuclear Medicine services and therapies including Radium 223-Chloride for Prostate Cancer, I131 therapies for thyroid cancer and benign indications, and Y90 Theraspheres for hepatocellular carcinoma. He has also been a member of staff at BCCA Victoria in the Department of Molecular Imaging and Therapy for 4 years where he reports PET-CT.

He is currently the chair of the Nuclear Medicine Advisory Committee to the Diagnostic Accreditation Program at CPSBC, a member of the board of directors of the Canadian Association of Nuclear Medicine, and is an active member of the teaching faculty with the UBC Nuclear Medicine Program, also serving as the community representative for the Nuclear Medicine residency program for the last 3 years.

Dr. Jasna Deluce completed her undergraduate degree in psychology and human biology at the University of Toronto. She then went on to medical school at Saba University School of Medicine in the Netherland Antilles. She completed Internal Medicine Residency at Queens University, followed by her medical oncology residency at the University of Western Ontario. She then completed a clinical research fellowship there specializing in genitourinary cancers. In October 2022 she made the cross-country move to join the staff medical oncology team in Abbotsford, and was recently appointed as the clinical trials unit Scientific Lead. Her focuses are on genitourinary cancers, lung cancers and skin cancers.

Associate Professor,
University of British Columbia
Medical Oncologist,
BC Cancer
Vancouver, BC

Dr. Eigl is a staff medical oncologist at BC Cancer Vancouver Centre, and Clinical Associate Professor, University of British Columbia. He is the Founding Director of the Provincial Clinical Trials Office, and Deputy Head, Department of Clinical Research at BC Cancer. The focus of his roles is to strengthen and further develop the clinical trial capabilities of all six BC cancer centers, and to improve access to clinical trials for those living with cancer across British Columbia. His research centers on genitourinary oncology clinical trials and biomarker research, with a special focus in bladder cancer.

Medical Oncology
Department Leader,
BC Cancer,
Kelowna, BC

Dr. Susan Ellard has been the Department Leader for the BC Cancer Kelowna and Southern Interior Region for the last two and a half tumultous years. She has been attempting to keep up with rapid and numerous research-driven evolutions in GU, breast, and gynecologic cancers, while trying to lead her beleaguered but excellent team out of the desert, to a better land. On the side, she maintains strong interests in clinical trials, health promotion for communities and medical providers, and planetary health.

BC Cancer Kelowna
Clinical Assistant Professor

Dr. Finch’s focus of practice is GU and Lung Cancers and is involved in teaching and clinical trials.

Northern Health Cancer Care Medical Lead,
NH Northwest HSDA Medical Director
GP Oncologist,
Mills Memorial Cancer Care Clinic
Terrace, BC

Dr. Jaco Fourie vacationed in the Pacific Northwest of BC in 1995 and never left. First In a full service family practice, obstetrics and ER for 21 years and cancer care since 2005, delivering complex care in the challenging rural and remote landscape has been a passionate pursuit. As Northern Health Medical Director for the Pacific Northwest HSDA and NH Medical Lead Cancer Care, Dr. Fourie is responsible for 4 hospitals, 4 health centres and with a co-lead coordinates accreditation, Health Authority cancer management strategy, CME, manpower and resource planning in 9 communities from Haida Gwaii Islands to Fort St. John. As a full time and solo GP Oncologist at Mills Memorial Cancer Care Clinic in Terrace, he oversees the treatment, diagnosis and staging and survivorship care of cancer patients from the Yukon border to Kitimat.It remains a privilege and endless fascination to be involved in the broad spectrum of malignancies, with increasingly complex management ,supported by my BCC Oncologist colleagues and tertiary care specialists.

Clinical Instructor, UBC
Oncologist, BC Cancer Victoria
Victoria, BC

I completed my oncology training at the University of Calgary before completing a health services fellowship and masters of public health at Queens. We have a brand new baby named Chloe at home so life is very busy right now.

Medical Oncologist with focus on treatment of GU, gynecological and breast malignancies. Completed medical school at the University of Ottawa Francophone program and specialty training at the University of Calgary

Surrey Memorial Hospital
Clinical instructor, UBC

Samrad Ghavimi completed his urology residency at the University of British Columbia in 2022. He proceeded to complete a fellowship in Uro-oncology at the University of Calgary and is currently working at Surrey Memorial Hospital as a uro-oncologist.

BC Cancer
Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine
UBC

Dr. Ed Hardy grew up in Saskatoon. Medical school, Internal Medicine residency at U of S in Saskatoon then Heme-Onc training at University of Utah/Huntsman Centre in Salt Lake City. Moved to Vernon on completion of training in 1999, have been here since doing community Oncology. I treat breast, GI, GU, lung, and lymphoma/myeloma. In my spare time I dream of having more spare time.

Matthew Ho completed his medical school and Urology residency at the University of British Columbia. He is currently in his final year of an SUO-accredited Urologic Oncology fellowship at the University of Chicago. After fellowship, he is excited to be joining the Urology staff at Kelowna General Hospital.

Dr. Hoag is a urologist in North Vancouver at Lions Gate Hospital. He has a fellowship in advanced minimally invasive urologic surgery and a practice focus in minimally invasive surgical management of urologic cancers. He has been President of the BC Urological Society since 2018 and President of Consultant Specialists of BC since 2021.

Clinical Associate Professor,
Department of Urologic Sciences,
University of British Columbia,
Vancouver BC

Dr. Hoag completed urology residency at UBC, followed by a 2-year fellowship in voiding dysfunction and reconstructive urology in Melbourne, Australia.

He practices in Victoria, BC. He is a clinical associate professor with UBC Dept. of Urologic Sciences.

He is the current President of the BC Urological Society.

Dr. Michael Humphreys is a BC Cancer Medical Oncologist in Vernon, BC who treats GU, Lung, GI, Breast and Melanoma. Med Onc residency at the Cross Cancer Institute. Now in 12th year of practice. His favourite activity is skiing with his wife and their 5 children ages 5-11.

Division of Surgery, University of British Columbia
B.C. Cancer Agency, Vancouver Cancer Centre

Dr. Keyes is a Clinical Professor in Radiation Oncology, University of British Columbia (UBC), a Fellow (FABS) of American Brachytherapy Society (ABS), ABS board member, recipient of ABS President Award and a Vice-Chair of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada AFC (Area of Focused Competence) Diploma in Brachytherapy. She is an AFC program director at UBC, former UBC Radiation Oncology Residency Training Program director and recipient of several teaching and mentorship awards. She is a CARO and BC Cancer wellness committee chair. Dr. Keyes is a keynote speaker at international conferences an author of over 100 peer-reviewed manuscripts. She holds CIHR and Michael Smith Foundation grant for translational research in prostate cancer.

BC Cancer – Victoria
Clinical Assistant Professor,
Division of Medical Oncology,
University of British Columbia

Dr. Jean-Michel Lavoie is a medical oncologist at BC Cancer – Victoria, where he primarily treats patients with genitourinary, and head and neck malignancies. He is also a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of British Columbia. His research interests include predictive biomarker development in patients receiving immunotherapy, with a special focus on urothelial and renal cell cancers. He is also interested in clinical trials in genitourinary cancers.
Dr. Lavoie completed his internal medicine and medical oncology training at the University of British Columbia. He then completed a fellowship in genitourinary oncology and experimental therapeutics through the UBC Clinician Investigator Program, where he focused on novel biomarker development in genitourinary cancers.

I went to McMaster University, and Western University. I completed my surgical training at Western University & the London Health Sciences Centre in Cardiac Surgery and Thoracic Surgery. I was a Trauma Team Leader at the London Health Sciences Centre. In January 2017, I came to Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) and the University of British Columbia (UBC). I was the Postgraduate Education Program Director for Thoracic Surgery at UBC (2017-2022).

I received the A.D. Forward Postgraduate Teaching Award for Outstanding Surgical Teaching & Education, in 2018. In 2019, I became the Program Director for the Surgical Foundations Program, Surgery, UBC. In December 2020, I was elected President of the BC Chest Surgery Association. In 2023, I joined the Cardiovascular & Thoracic Division at St. Paul's, and I am part of the heart and lung transplant team.

Dr. Miles Mannas is a clinical assistant professor of Urology at the Department of Urologic Sciences and Senior Research Scientist at the Vancouver Prostate Centre. He completed Urology training at the University of British Columbia and Urologic Oncology fellowship at NYU Langone Health, a centre leading improvement in the diagnosis and treatment of localized prostate cancer. It was here that he gained expertise in image guided diagnostics and therapeutics for prostate cancer. During fellowship, Dr. Mannas also undertook a Master’s of Science in Clinical Investigation, with a focus on Health Innovation and Technology. The focus of his fellowship and Master’s research was the validation of human and artificial intelligent interpretation of stimulated Raman histology, and application to real-time radical prostatectomy and cryosurgical ablation margin assessments.

Clinical Assistant Professor,
Department of Radiology,
University of British Columbia
Nuclear Medicine Specialist,
Molecular Imaging and Therapy,
BC Cancer,
Vancouver, BC

Dr. Martineau is a Nuclear Medicine specialist based in the Molecular Imaging and Therapy department at BC Cancer Vancouver. He obtained his MDCM, PhD and MSc degrees from McGill University and subsequently completed training in Nuclear Medicine and Radiology at Harvard Medical School, The Ottawa Hospital (TOH), and the University of Ottawa Heart Institute (UOHI), Canada. Dr. Martineau’s research focuses primarily on applications of PET/CT imaging. His interests include PET imaging, theranostics, as well as medical education.

BC Cancer, Vancouver Centre
Co-director, BC provincial GU Biobank

Corinne is a medical oncologist at BC Cancer-Vancouver Centre. She undertook her Medical Oncology specialist training in Haifa, Israel, followed by a 2-year fellowship at BC Cancer focusing on genitourinary malignancies. She is a co-director of the BC provincial GU Biobank and is actively involved in clinical research in Genitourinary and early phase clinical trial unit. Her research interests include clinical and translational aspects of prostate cancer, specifically, prognostic and predictive biomarkers in metastatic prostate cancer.

Urologist,
Victoria, BC

Urologist from Victoria

Dr. Miller is a Radiation Oncologist and the Regional Medical Director at the BC Cancer - Centre for the North and a proud Wheelin’ Warrior. She trained at the University of British Columbia with residency at the BC Cancer and subsequent international fellowship in Sydney, Australia. Clinically, she is involved in the treatment of several types of cancer with a special interest in Genitourinary and Lymphoid malignancies as well as Rapid Access to Palliative Radiotherapy. As a physician leader in the North, she has focused on Centre for the North’s vision to bring cancer care closer to home including development of Telehealth systems to support this work. Our current research priority is Precision Radiotherapy for Oligo Metastatic Cancers. Dr. Miller is originally from the west coast and moved to Prince George for the opening of the Centre for the North in 2012.

Associate Professor, Urologic Sciences,
University of British Columbia
Senior Research Scientist, Vancouver Prostate
Medical Oncologist, BC Cancer
Vancouver, BC
She is an assistant professor in the department of Urologic Sciences at the University of British Columbia and a senior research scientist at the Vancouver Prostate and works as medical oncologist in the GU group at the BC Cancer in Vancouver.
Her main research focus involves discovery and validation of biomarkers in GU cancers, mainly in prostate and testis cancer patients.
She has got several grants and awards including the Prostate Cancer Foundation Young Investigator award and the Michael Smith Foundation Health Professional Investigator award (2020), the operational CIHR grant in 2021, a R01/R37 NIH grant and the career development award from the US department of defense (2022).
She is the vice-chair of the SWOG Adolescent and Young Adults (AYA) committee and the co-chair of the international SWOG- S1823 cohort study and the chair of the Canadian GCC.1 equivalent study through the Canadian Cancers Trial Group (CCTGG).

BC Cancer
Victoria, BC

Graduated medical school from University of Alberta. Internal medicine and medical oncology residencies at University of Calgary. GU fellowship under Dr. Kim Chi at BC Cancer Victoria. Working as staff medical oncologist since then at BC Cancer Victoria.

Dr. Peacock completed both Medical School and his Radiation Oncology Residency at UBC. He then completed a brachytherapy fellowship at the Tom Baker Cancer Centre in Calgary. He has been working at BC Cancer Vancouver Centre since 2016 specializing in genitourinary and gastrointestinal treatments. He is a clinical assistant professor in the UBC Department of Surgery. He is currently involved in clinical research including the CIHR-funded OPTiMAL clinical trial for patients with advanced prostate cancer. He is also the present Radiation Oncology Residency Program Director.

Radiation Oncologist, BC Cancer Kelowna
Clinical Assistant Professor, UBC Department of Surgery

Hamid Raziee is a Radiation Oncologist in BC Cancer, Kelowna. He has an interest in quality improvement in health services, and in patient outcome research in Radiation Oncology. He completed a Gynecology Radiation Oncology Research Fellowship at Sunnybrook Odette Cancer Centre focusing on brachytherapy.

His practice in Kelowna includes treating patients with genitourinary, gynecological and breast cancers. He is particularly interested in improving patient outcome through the implementation of advanced brachytherapy and adaptive radiotherapy techniques for both gynecological and prostate cancers. Outside of professional life, he loves running, road biking, and exploring the beautiful nature of BC!

Dr. Jesse Shustik is a Hematologist-Oncologist in the Department of Medical Oncology, BC Cancer – Surrey, and a Clinical Assistant Professor in the UBC Faculty of Medicine. His clinical practice is focused on the management of hematological and genitourinary malignancies. He has been actively involved in clinical trials and resident supervision and teaching at his centre. He was also his high school debating champion.

Urologic-Oncology Fellow, University of British Columbia
Vancouver, BC

Dr. Marie-Pier St-Laurent is a young urologist who graduated from Laval University in Quebec City, where she did her medical degree and urology residency. She is completing a fellowship in Urologic Oncology at University of British-Columbia (UBC), with a research focus on urothelial carcinoma. She is interest in developing a career in translational and clinical trial research. Amongst other thing, she is currently developing a novel clinical trial concept for active surveillance and clinical restaging after completion of neoadjuvant therapy for muscle-invasive bladder cancer.

Clinical Associate Professor,
University of British Columbia
Medical Oncologist, BC Cancer
Surrey, BC

Dr. Aleksi Suo completed his undergraduate at UBC and attended medical school in New South Wales, Australia. He returned to Canada for residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan, and Medical Oncology at the University of Calgary. He is a medical oncologist at BC Cancer - Surrey and Clinical Assistant Professor with UBC.

Radiation Oncologist,
BC Cancer,
Vancouver, BC

Dr. Ryan Urban is a radiation oncologist at BC Cancer - Vancouver on the GU and gyne teams. He is the program director of the UBC brachytherapy Area of Focused Competency fellowship program.

BC Cancer Vancouver Center
Clinical Associate Professor, UBC
Interim Department Head, BC Cancer Pathology
Lead Pathologist, BC Cancer GU BioBank

Dr. Wang received his MD from Tongji Medical University (Wuhan, China) and his Ph.D. in Pathology from the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, Canada). After completing his Anatomic Pathology residency at the University of British Columbia and Genitourinary Pathology fellowship at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, he joined the BC Cancer Vancouver Center as a consultant pathologist in 2017. Dr. Wang is currently a Clinical Associate Professor at UBC, the Interim Department Head of BC Cancer Pathology, and the lead pathologist of BC Cancer GU BioBank. Dr. Wang has a long-term research interest in genitourinary tumours, and his translational research is supported by the Canadian Cancer Research Society, Genome BC, the University of British Columbia, and industry collaborative grants. Dr. Wang has authored over 60 peer-reviewed original articles and multiple book chapters. He was an invited speaker for the PNWSP annual meeting, CAPA diagnostic course and online lecture series, The Canadian Anatomic & Molecular Pathology Conference (CAMP), the Canadian Bladder Cancer Information System (CBCIS), and Huaxia Pathology Online Course. He is also the reviewer for more than 30 academic journals and the editor or guest editor for a few of them. He has been awarded the "New Faculty Research Award", "Precision Health Catalyst Grant Award" and "The Health Innovation Funding Investment (HIFI) Award" from UBC FoM, and the "Excellent in Research and Discovery Award" from UBC Department of Pathology.

Don graduated from the University of Saskatchewan with degrees in Biochemistry and Medicine. He came to Vancouver and completed three years of Internal Medicine residency training at St. Paul’s Hospital before training in Nuclear Medicine at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario becoming a Fellow of the Royal College (FRCPC) in 1994. Don returned to Vancouver and trained as a Radiation Oncologist at UBC/BCCA obtaining his Fellowship (FRCPC) in 1997. He went on to complete a Fellowship in PET Imaging Research at the University of Washington Medical Centre in Seattle. Don joined the BC Cancer Agency in as a staff Radiation Oncologist at Fraser Valley Cancer Centre in 1998. In 2005 he assumed the role of Medical Director of Functional Imaging at Vancouver Cancer Centre and led development of the provincial PET/CT and cyclotron/radiopharmacy program. He is currently Provincial Medical Lead of the Molecular Imaging and Therapy program at BC Cancer.

Clinical Assistant Professor,
University of British Columbia,
Urologist,
Royal Columbian Hospital
Vancouver, BC

Nathan Wong currently works as a Urologist and Urologic Oncologist at Royal Columbian Hospital. He is a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia. He completed a Urologic Oncology Fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. His focus is on minimally invasive surgery and clinical research.

Associate Professor, University of British Columbia
Senior Research Scientist, Vancouver Prostate Centre
Senior Scientist, Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, BC Cancer

Dr. Wyatt is an associate professor in Urologic Sciences at the University of British Columbia, Canada. He is a senior research scientist at the Vancouver Prostate Centre and a senior scientist at BC Cancer. Dr. Wyatt has a DPhil in genetics from the University of Oxford.

His research goals are to identify associations between genomic alterations and patient outcomes in metastatic prostate and bladder cancer, and to translate these findings into clinical biomarkers.

Dr. Wyatt has developed novel laboratory and computational techniques to study plasma circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA). Through application of these methods to clinical trial cohorts, his team has demonstrated that ctDNA is highly representative of metastatic lesions, and that somatic alterations detected in ctDNA can help predict prostate cancer therapy resistance or response.

Dr. Wyatt is the chair of correlative sciences and tumour biobanking for the Canadian Cancer Trial Group (CCTG) and through this role is involved in design and execution of phase I-III clinical trial protocols across Canada. Dr. Wyatt directs the ctDNA screening strategy and the molecular tumor board for the first multi-center phase 2 umbrella trial in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (NCT03385655, NCT02905318).

Head of Urology, Fraser Health Authority
Clinical Associate Professor
Department of Urologic Sciences
Faculty of Medicine
University of British Columbia

Dr Brian Yang was born and raised in the lower mainland. He completed medical school at UBC and speciality training at McMaster University where he specialized in minimally invasive urological surgery. He returned to metro Vancouver to practice at the Royal Columbian, Burnaby and Eagle Ridge hospitals. His administrative roles include Head of Surgery at RCH and Head of Urology in the Fraser Health authority. Dr Yang is active in several national and international organizations and associations. He cherishes teaching medical students and residents at UBC where he holds the title of Clinical Associate Professor.

Medical Oncologist,
Burnaby General Hospital
Ridge Meadows Hospital

Dr. Yu is a medical Oncologist practicing at Burnaby General Hospital and Ridge Meadows Hospital. He treats multiple solid tumor sites and select hematologic malignancies.

BC Cancer,
Vancouver, BC

University of British Columbia,
Vancouver, BC

Cameron completed his PhD in 2024 at the University of British Columbia under the supervision of Dr. Alexander Wyatt, having previously obtained a BSc in biophysics from the same institution. His doctoral research helped establish circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) as a practical tool for predictive and prognostic (epi)genomic biomarker profiling in mCRPC, and Cameron is now continuing his research in mCRPC genomic biomarker development as a postdoctoral fellow. Cameron received several awards during his PhD, including a three-year CIHR CGS-D scholarship and merit awards from AACR and ASCO.

Sajjad holds a Ph.D. in Nanobiotechnology and actively contributes to translational research in cancer treatment and diagnosis.

Andy Jia is a UBC MSc student in the Interdisciplinary Oncology Program. He completed his BSc in Integrated Sciences at UBC in 2022. His current clinical research involves investigating novel detection methods for early-stage testicular cancer.

Vancouver Prostate Centre,
Vancouver, BC

Asli is PhD student at the Vancouver Prostate Centre. Her work focuses on characterizing the prevalence and clinical relevance of clonal hematopoiesis in genitourinary cancers using computational methods.

I am a medical oncologist from Turkey. I worked at VPC as a postdoc in Dr.Nappi's lab before switching to a clinical fellowship. I am in the second year of my GU fellowship and will soon join the BC Cancer Victoria team.

Postdoctoral Fellow, Vancouver Prostate Centre
Co-Director, BC Cancer Biobank

Dr. Gillian Vandekerkhove is a genomic scientist working to improve precision oncology approaches for patients with urothelial cancer. She is a postdoctoral fellow at the Vancouver Prostate Centre, and Co-Director of the BC Cancer Biobank of Predictive Biomarkers in Genitourinary Cancers. Her research utilizes circulating cell-free tumor DNA and tumor tissue to explore the molecular landscape of urothelial cancer and develop minimally invasive biomarkers for guiding therapy selection. Dr. Vandekerkhove received her PhD in Experimental Medicine from the University of British Columbia, and holds a BSc from the University of Victoria and MSc from the University of Toronto. Her postdoctoral research is funded through a CIHR Project Grant, and she is the recipient of a Gilead Research Scholars Program Solid Tumor Award.