April

A research team based out of UBC is investigating whether sildenafil could be an effective treatment for early intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR). The STRIDER (sildenafil therapy in dismal prognosis early-onset intrauterine growth restriction) trial was approved by Health Canada, and the team is coordinating efforts to recruit participants from across Canada.

One in 12 Canadians aged 55 and older skipped prescriptions due to cost in 2014, the second-highest rate among comparable countries, new UBC research has found. The research draws on the 2014 Commonwealth Fund’s International Health Policy Survey of Older Adults (persons aged 55 years or older) in 11 high-income countries: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Among countries with publicly funded health care systems, Canada is the only one without coverage for prescription medications.

The Terry Fox Research Institute invested $5 million for New Brunswick researchers and their colleagues at other cancer centres across Canada to study how new precision medicine tools could improve, and potentially save, the lives of patients diagnosed with multiple myeloma.

Patients who experience anxiety and depression after being diagnosed with advanced lung cancer are more likely to die sooner, according to new research from UBC and the BC Cancer Agency.

The study is among the first to examine the effect of anxiety and depression on survival rates for lung cancer patients. The findings build on similar previous research looking at breast cancer patients, further deepening scientists’ understanding of the effect of psychosocial factors on survival rates for patients diagnosed with cancer.