Meet the Team Canada of Cancer Research: A Q&A with Dr. Lincoln Stein

Dr. Lincoln Stein is a renowned cancer researcher and a pivotal figure in the development of large-scale genomic data initiatives. As the Director of the Informatics and Bio-computing Program at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR), Dr. Stein has played a critical role in harnessing the power of genomics to advance cancer research and care through precision oncology.

We spoke to Dr. Stein to learn more about his career, his research and how initiatives like the Marathon of Hope Cancer Centres Network (MOHCCN) are driving collaboration across Canada for the benefit of cancer patients. From the potential of precision oncology to the future of cancer treatment, Dr. Stein offers a glimpse into the innovative approaches that are shaping the future of cancer care.

We hope you enjoy this interview as much as we did. 

MOHCCN: Why did you become a cancer researcher? Was there a particular moment or experience that led to this decision? 

Lincoln Stein: I had always had a foot in the cancer world via my work as an anatomic pathologist, but for much of my early research career I worked on model organisms such as the C. elegans nematode, and on large biological data integration projects that were agnostic to the research objective. The shift to cancer research came in 2006 when Dr. Tom Hudson, former President and Scientific Director of the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, invited me to establish the bioinformatics program at the newly formed OICR. I leapt at the opportunity to join my clinical training to my research while doing something that directly impacted patient care, and I haven't looked back since.

Cancer research is difficult: progress is slow and for every step forward there may be quite a few steps backwards or sideways. What inspires you to keep going? What life lessons have you learned through cancer research?

 I've learned over the years that most research ideas don't pan out, but every so often you try something that has fantastic results. I live for that rare eureka moment and let the rest flow past like water. Each failure is a learning experience that helps me grow wiser. At least I hope it does! 

How would you explain your current research focus to a cancer patient or their family member?

Cancer outcomes have improved dramatically over the past decades. Cancer patients are now living longer, healthier lives. However, because patients now live longer, the chance of getting a second cancer is rapidly increasing. When a patient who has had cancer in the past now comes to clinical attention with a new tumour, is it the old cancer that has come back, or is it a new cancer arising from a different organ? My team has developed an AI system that can look at a tumour's genome and tell you what organ it arose from, helping to distinguish a recurrence from a new cancer. Using this information, doctors can choose the most appropriate therapy for the patient.

In the future, we hope to apply the algorithm to "liquid biopsies" in which trace amounts of the tumour's DNA is recovered from a patient's blood and sequenced. This would allow doctors to identify the nature of a patient's tumour using a simple blood draw instead of a biopsy.

What impact do you hope your research will have on cancer treatment and the outcomes for patients?

I hope to improve outcomes by providing a diagnostic tool that helps to correctly identify the type and source of a tumour so that doctors can prescribe the most appropriate course of therapy. 

Just like Terry Fox united Canadians nearly 45 years ago, the Marathon of Hope Cancer Centres Network is uniting researchers, clinicians, patients and administrators from cancer treatment and research institutions across Canada to accelerate precision medicine. How important is this collaboration and what impact do you think it could have on cancer research and treatment?

At the molecular level, cancer is a tremendously heterogeneous and adaptable disease. To understand its many aspects, we need to look in depth at a large number of tumours from a diverse population of patients. By creating a program to sequence and share 15,000 cancer genomes and key clinical elements, the MOHCCN promises to add substantially to our understanding of the spectrum of cancer among Canadians. Researchers will be mining the MOHCCN sequencing resource for years to understand how changes to the cancer genome affect the patient's response to therapy, and using this information to develop decision support tools to choose the therapy most likely to be effective for a particular patient. 

If a researcher, clinician, patient or donor asked you why the Marathon of Hope Cancer Centres Network is important, what would you tell them?

Without the MOHCCN only a tiny number of Canadian cancer patients would have genome sequencing performed on their tumours, depriving the research community of valuable information needed to develop improved diagnostics and therapies.

What does Terry Fox mean to you? How does Terry inspire you?

Terry Fox is an inspiring figure to me and my children. He showed the world how a single man can make a difference to the world through courage, persistence and passion.