Founded: 1952
PMCC Beds: 130
UHN Researchers: 650
UHN Staff Physicians: 650
OCI Researchers: 360
OCI Trainees: 550
OCI Staff: 770
Doctors
Research focus:
Pleural and peritoneal malignant mesothelioma, comprehensive cancer treatment, radiation therapy, lung cancer and other thoracic malignancies, all aspects of cancer stem cells, cell signaling, cell biology, structural biology, immunology and immune therapy, psychosocial oncology and palliative care.
Clinic at-a-glance:
The Princess Margaret Cancer Centre is one of four University Health Network centers. Its oncology services merged with those of Toronto General and Toronto Western in 1998. Princess Margaret includes 12 site groups and 26 specialty clinics. It is one of the largest comprehensive cancer treatment facilities in the world and the largest radiation treatment center in Canada. The Lung Site Group specializes in mesothelioma. The center offers medical, radiation and surgical care to patients with lung cancer and other thoracic malignancies. The center’s Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy Program was the first in Canada to treat patients diagnosed with lung cancer. In addition, the Princess Margaret center offers volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT). This technology allows for quicker and more efficient delivery of specialized radiation therapy. The Department of Surgical Oncology includes 60 surgeons. The surgical oncologists introduced the hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) program and moved the center’s Guided Therapeutics Lab (GTx Lab) to the MaRS Discovery District. The Ontario Cancer Institute (OCI) is the research arm of Princess Margaret. It houses a team of internationally recognized scientists that seek to understand all aspects of cancer through research in stem cells, cell signaling, cell biology, structural biology, immunology and immune therapy, psychosocial oncology and palliative care. This institute also includes the Campbell Family Cancer Research Institute and Institute for Breast Cancer Research. The institute houses facilities for molecular imaging, guided therapeutics, genomics, proteomics and bioinformatics.