Why it matters

Sunnybrook’s Odette Cancer Centre

As the second-largest cancer centre in Canada and the sixth-largest in North America, Sunnybrook’s Odette Cancer Centre provides state-of-the-art care for patients from across Ontario. Through our research today, we drive the innovations that will become tomorrow’s cutting-edge therapies.

Innovations & medical breakthroughs

• We were the first to implant tiny, radioactive “brachytherapy” seeds in women with early-stage breast cancer in a single, one-hour outpatient appointment – eliminating daily radiation appointments and side effects.

• Because of our breakthrough research, men around the world know that eating cooked tomatoes, which are naturally high in bioavailable lycopene, can prevent and even kill prostate cancer.

• Our experts invented digital imaging to detect breast cancer at its earliest stages. Today, it’s the most state-of-the-art technology available to identify cancer in young women with dense breasts. Now, we’re using it to screen healthy women to predict their breast cancer risk and take steps to prevent it.

• We’re leading world-changing research in MRI-guided high-intensity focused ultrasound, to create an incredibly effective yet gentle, non-invasive therapy to destroy hard-to-treat and inoperable cancers.

• Using nanotechnology, our research is attaching tiny gold particles to cancer cells, to radically increase the effects of radiation on tumours without increasing the damage to healthy cells.

The dedicated research of our world-leading oncologists and researchers means that Sunnybrook continues to invent the future of cancer care.

Proceeds from the Glitter of Hope Lottery will be supporting the Odette Cancer Centre.