December 4, 2019
Christine Friedenreich, Scientific Director of the Department of Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention Research for AHS, is now a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. She was formally welcomed into the society at a ceremony in Ottawa on Nov. 22, during its Celebration of Excellence and Engagement.
Story by Jennifer Green
When research leader Dr. Christine Friedenreich first got the news that she’d been elected as a Fellow into the Royal Society of Canada, she felt beyond grateful.
“This is the highest recognition one can be given as an academic for their work and research,” says Friedenreich, Scientific Director of the Department of Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention Research for Alberta Health Services (AHS).
When Friedenreich began doing research on physical activity and cancer in the early 1990s, there was limited evidence on any possible associations. She met Dr. Kerry Courneya and together they developed a framework for physical activity across the cancer experience from prevention to survival. They have conducted more than 40 studies that have examined aspects of how physical activity is related to decreasing the risk of cancer, improving coping and rehabilitation during cancer treatment, and improving survival after diagnosis.
“When we started doing this research, there was some reluctance among my clinical colleagues to conduct exercise intervention studies directly with cancer patients since the recommendations for patients at that time was to rest and not to exert themselves,” she adds. Fortunately, researchers overcame these barriers and went on to conduct several clinical trials with cancer patients — both during and after their treatment — to determine that exercising is safe and beneficial.
They are currently conducting the Alberta Moving Beyond Breast Cancer (AMBER) cohort study funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. To this end, they’ve recruited 1,528 newly diagnosed breast-cancer patients. They’re measuring the participants’ physical activity, fitness, sedentary behaviour as well as many other factors. These measurements are taken at the time of diagnosis and then one, three and five years post-diagnosis — and each participant is followed for up for 10 years to determine how these factors relate to their survival.
This study is the first of its kind in the world to use objective measurements of activity and fitness and to relate them to long-term survival after breast cancer.
“Our research has been examining the questions of what timing, type and dose of activity are related to the risk of developing cancer and, after cancer, what the optimal level is to improve survival,” says Friedenreich.
She’s now working with the World Health Organization to develop new physical activity guidelines that will be released in 2020. These global guidelines will provide guidance on the recommended levels of physical activity for health promotion, disease prevention and improving outcomes for people with chronic conditions or impairments.
“I’ve enjoyed working in this field because my whole focus has been on how to reduce the burden of cancer through physical activity,” she says.
“This topic is quite rewarding, since physical activity is a modifiable risk factor and people have control over it themselves. They can reduce their risk of cancer by being active, and once diagnosed, they can incorporate activity into their lives to help increase survival after diagnosis.”
Ninety-three new Fellows in the Academies of Arts and Humanities, Social Sciences, and Science have been elected by their peers for their outstanding scholarly, scientific and artistic achievement; along with Friedenreich, Liang Li, Department of Chemistry from the University of Alberta, was also elected as a Fellow.
The 2019 Royal Society of Canada Fellows and Members were welcomed into the RSC Nov. 22 in Ottawa, during the Celebration of Excellence and Engagement.
