Research summary
Obesity competes with smoking as the leading modifiable risk factor for cancer mortality. Yet more than a quarter of Canadians are considered obese, and the problem costs Canada $4 to $7 billion a year. As Canada Research Chair in Tumour Microenvironment, Dr. Daniela Quail aims to better understand the decline in immune health that links obesity to cancer mortality.
She and her research team are studying how the adipose tissue (body fat) immune microenvironment affects the progression of primary tumours. They are also looking at the impact of obesity on systemic inflammation and metastasis, and examining how nutrition and the microbiome influence patients’ responses to immunotherapy. Ultimately, they hope to gain a better understanding of sustainable immune health in order to reduce the number of people who die from cancer.