"Cracking Cancer" on The Nature of Things with David Suzuki, CBC

Dr. Suzuki is an award-winning scientist, environmentalist and broadcaster. His television appearances, explaining the complexities of the natural sciences in a compelling, easily understood way, have consistently received high acclaim for over 30 years. He is the only network television science host who was actually a practising scientist.  He will be presenting the documentary "Cracking Cancer" which looks at the Personalized Oncogenomics Trial being carried out at the BC Cancer Agency.  This research is being led by Drs. Janessa Laskin and Marco Marra, and is supported by donations to the BC Cancer Foundation.

After a year and a half filming at the BC Cancer Agency the documentary, Cracking Cancer, is premiering this Thursday on CBC’s The Nature of Things. Cracking Cancer, hosted by David Suzuki, follows seven patients enrolled in the BC Cancer Agency’s Personalized Onco-Genomics (POG) program, a groundbreaking clinical trial that identifies and targets cancer-causing mutations in patients. “We’re trying to find what’s driving [each patient’s] cancer,” says Dr. Janessa Laskin, co-founder of POG alongside Dr. Marco Marra. “And then, can we identify a drug that will block the cancer driver?”

Zuri Scrivens, a patient featured in the documentary, went from having incurable cancer to being cancer-free, thanks to her participation in the POG trial. “I’ve shown that anything is possible,” says Scrivens, who was diagnosed at 33-years-old, 10 months after giving birth.

More than 700 patients have consented to participate in the POG program, which is funded by BC Cancer Foundation donors. The next phase of the trial will increase patient intake up to 2,000, setting a global precedent for diversity of cancers investigated and the number of participating patients. The documentary airs this Thursday at 8 p.m. on CBC TV. Watch trailers for the documentary here.