B.C. government contributes $4 million for UBC cancer research chair

The B.C. government is providing $4 million to the Canadian Cancer Society to endow a research chair at the University of British Columbia.
The chair will be held by cancer prevention and control specialist Carolyn Cook Gotay.

Gotay will initiate and supervise cancer prevention studies in B.C.

Advanced Education Minister Murray Coell says the endowment will help develop a national cancer prevention strategy by researching links between diet, exercise, weight, stress and environmental carcinogens to specific types of cancer.

The Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation has also committed to provide an additional $750,000 towards the chair.
Coell and made the announcement in Vancouver on Saturday.

Gotay says there will be an estimated 20,500 new cases of cancer and 9,200 deaths in 2008 in B.C.

“This is 100 fewer new cases and 200 more deaths than 2007, but nationwide the number of new cancer cases and deaths continues to rise steadily as the Canadian population ages,” she says.

-with a report from CP