The teams

Trained in Algiers and Paris as a medical oncologist, Dr. Asselah completed a 2-year fellowship on phase 1 clinical trials at the Investigation Unit of the Curie Institute Cancer Center in Paris, France.

In 2008, he joined the Université de Sherbrooke as an Assistant Professor, developing new research protocols in breast cancer and standardizing treatment practices at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Sherbrooke, where he also launched theoncology residency program.

Dr. Asselah joined McGill in 2011 as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Oncology, and is now Associate Professor. He is on staff as a medical oncologist at the McGill University Health Centre, where he spearheaded a working group standardizing treatment guidelines for breast cancer. He was the first Site Lead for the Rossy Cancer Network. Dr. Asselah has been the principal investigator in numerous clinical research protocols and has been part of several research groups at the provincial and national levels. His research interests include breast cancers, gastrointestinal cancers, and cancers of the head and neck.

Dr. Asselah is also a leader of the “Opal” team and has been involved in the development and implementation of “Opal,” an innovative patient portal that provides patients with immediate access to their personal health information.

More recently with the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in Québec, Dr. Asselah has assumed a leadership role through his work with the Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux (MSSS), helping to coordinate efforts to mitigate risks to cancer patients despite the constraints imposed by the current situation.

Dr. Jean-Pierre Ayoub is a medical oncologist at the Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM) and a Clinical Assistant Professor for the Department of Medicine at the Université de Montréal.

After completing his studies and residency in internal medicine at the Faculty of Medicine of McGill University, Dr. Ayoub completed a fellowship in medical oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, USA. Dr. Ayoub has been a member of the Hematology-Oncology Department of the CHUM since 2001, where he mainly treats patients with gastrointestinal or breast cancer.

Dr. Ayoub is a member of the CHUM’s Oncology Research Unit where he acts as Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator in various national and international trials in oncology funded by private industry and peer committees. He acted as principal investigator in 34 clinical trials in oncology carried out at the CHUM and participated as author or co-author in 30 publications (peer-reviewed journals) and book chapters. He is the representative for the CHUM site for clinical research carried out with the Canadian Cancer Clinical Trials Group (CCTG), and a member of the Breast Disease Site Committee (Medical Oncologist) at CCTG for the CHUM.

Dr. Vincent Barrette is a Hematologist Oncologist at the CISSS de Chaudière-Appalaches. He obtained his doctorate in medicine and completed his postdoctoral training in Hematology and Medical Oncology at Université Laval. He subsequently completed his fellowship in breast and digestive oncology at the Tom Baker Cancer Centre (Calgary, Canada).

Dr. Barrette is head of the hemato-oncology department at the CISSS de Chaudière-Appalaches.

Dr. Boileau is a surgical oncologist and clinician scientist at the Montreal Jewish General Hospital. He is assistant professor in the Department of Surgery at McGill University. He has worked as staff surgeon at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Montreal (CHUM) and at the Sunnybrook Odette Cancer Centre in Toronto before transferring to his current position.

His research interests are in breast cancer and clinical trials. The main focus of his research aims at using primary systemic therapy, or neoadjuvant therapy, as a more efficient way to study the effects of systemic treatments in people with breast cancer.

Dr. Boileau is the principle investigator of the SN FNAC Trial, a Canadian multicenter study evaluating the accuracy of sentinel node biopsy in node positive breast cancer patients following neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Other research interests include the identification of better predictors of response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy and early detection of breast cancer.

Dr. Christine Desbiens is a surgical oncologist and associate clinical professor at the CHU de Québec – Université Laval. She was Medical Director of the Centre des Maladies du sein from 2015 to 2020.

She obtained her doctorate in medicine and received her diploma in general surgery at Laval University in Quebec City. She completed a breast cancer subspecialty at the London Regional Cancer Center affiliated with the University of Western Ontario.

Since 1999, Dr. Desbiens has been practicing as a researcher and clinician in the Oncology axis of the CHU de Québec research center. She is also member and head of clinical studies of the Canadian Cancer Trial Group (CCTG) at the CHUQ.

Her interest lies in the several phases of breast cancer, from screening to metastatic disease including innovative aspects in surgery and breast oncoplasty. She participates as an investigator and co-investigator in numerous randomized clinical trials.

Dr. Desbien’s longstanding interest in genetics has led her to be one of the initiators of the recently established oncogenetics network of the RUIS of the Université Laval.

Dr. Catherine Doyle is a hemato-oncologist and clinical associate professor at Université Laval.

After her doctorate in medicine at Université Laval, she completed her residency in hematology followed by a fellowship in medical oncology at Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto. In 2000, after a few years of practice at the Rimouski Regional Hospital Center, she joined the team at the Centre des maladies du sein while also being part of the group of hemato-oncologists which currently serves the CHU de Québec – Université Laval.

She is involved as an investigator in various clinical research projects offered to patients at the Centre des maladies du sein. She has also been working for access to new drugs in the hospital formulary as president of the chemotherapy subcommittee of the CHU de Québec – Université Laval for several years.

Director of the hematology residency program at Université Laval until recently, she has always been very involved in teaching.

Dr. Esfahani is an assistant professor of Oncology at McGill University and a researcher at the Lady Davis Institute of the Jewish General Hospital. He completed his oncology training at McGill, following which he decided to pursue further research in the field of immune oncology.

His expertise is in the treatment of breast, head and neck, and skin cancers with a research focus on immunotherapies and targeted therapies.

He co-leads one the largest Canadian multidisciplinary initiatives to study immune-related adverse events and has numerous key publications in this field.

Dr. Isabelle Gingras is a hemato-oncologist at the Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur-de-Montréal. She obtained her doctorate in medicine at the Université de Montréal, and continued her career there by completing her certification in the specialties of internal medicine, then hematology and finally medical oncology. She then completed her subspecialization in breast cancer (fellowship) at the BrEAST Data center, a research unit specializing in international clinical trials in breast cancer, affiliated with the Institut Jules-Bordet, in Belgium.

Dr. Gingras joined the oncology research team at the Hôpital du Sacré-Cœur de Montréal early in her career and participated in several national and international clinical trials as principal investigator or co-investigator, with breast cancer research as her main focus. Dr. Gingras has also contributed to several scientific publications in journals of interest.

Dr. José Luiz Miranda Guimarães has been a medical oncologist since 2014 at the Centre intégré universitaire de santé et de services sociaux (CIUSSS) du Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean and assistant professor of medicine at the Faculté de médecine et des sciences de la santé de l’Université de Sherbrooke and associate professor at the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi.

Originally from Brazil, Dr. Guimarães graduated in medicine from the Federal University of Health Sciences of Porto Alegre, did a medical residency in clinical oncology at the Santa Rita Hospital in Porto Alegre in addition to completing a training (fellowship) at the Institut Gustave Roussy in Villejuif in France. He was also professor of the clinical oncology program of the medical residence at the Santa Rita Hospital and the Conceição Hospital (Ministry of Health of Brazil).

Dr. Guimarães has extensive experience in clinical research in the field of clinical oncology and has participated in various national and international studies. He obtained his title from the Brazilian Society of Clinical Oncology (Brazilian Medical Association) from the Brazilian Cancer Society and his specialist Certificate in Medical Oncology from the Collège des médecins du Québec. He has a particular interest in breast and lung tumors as well as genitourinary and digestive tumors.

Dr Guimarães is not only passionate about his specialty, but research is one of his priorities to which he devotes a large part of his time.

Dr. Elise Martel is a General Surgeon at the CHRDL of the CISSS de Lanaudière. After graduating from Université Laval in medicine, she completed a residency in Surgery at Université de Montréal. She obtained a certificate in clinical research from Harvard University in 2014. She subsequently developed expertise in teaching critical analysis of medical literature.

Since 2012, she has held the position of Director of Medical Education at CHRDL, an institution affiliated with Université Laval.

Dr. Martel has a particular interest in the treatment of breast cancer which occupies 75% of her clinical practice. In 2010-2011, she followed additional training with Dr. André Robidoux for the administration of chemotherapy. She has participated in a few local research projects on the subject but wants her institution to have access to multicentre studies and develop expertise in breast cancer research.

Dr. Samuel Martel received a M.D from the Université de Montréal and completed his residency in medical oncology at the Université de Sherbrooke, before starting his subspecialization in breast oncology at the Institut Jules Bordet in Brussels.

Since December 2017, Dr. Martel has been a medical oncologist at the CISSS Montérégie-Centre/Hôpital Charles-Le Moyne. In addition to his clinical work with his patients, he is involved in teaching to students and residents of the Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology program at the Université de Sherbrooke. He also acts as an external consultant to the Institut national d’excellence en santé et en services sociaux (INESSS) for the evaluation of innovative drugs for breast cancer. Finally, he is involved in carrying out various clinical trials aimed at improving the treatment of oncological patients.

Dr. Meterissian studied medicine at the MUHC, from which he graduated in 1985. By 1990, he had completed his residency in general surgery in the University’s teaching hospitals and completed a two-year research fellowship in surgical oncology at New England Deaconess Hospital in Boston. He went on to complete a second two-year fellowship in clinical surgical oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, under the supervision of Dr. Charles Balch. Along the way he obtained a Masters in Experimental Surgery.

In 1994, Dr. Meterissian returned to McGill University as Assistant Professor of Surgery and Oncology. From 1997 to 2001, he served as General Program Director in surgical oncology. In 2001, he was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in addition to becoming Program Director of General Surgery, a position he held until 2007, when he took his current position as Associate Dean of Postgraduate Medical Education. In 2010, he was promoted to Full Professor.

He has been a member of the Centre for Medical Education since 2001 and was President of the Canadian Society of Surgical Oncology from 2007 to 2009. He was the Chair of the AFMC Standing Committee of Postgrad Deans, the President of the Quebec Postgrad Deans Group, as well as the President-Elect of the Canadian Association of University Surgeons and of Breast Surgery International. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Collège des Medecins du Quebec.

Named outstanding General Surgery Teacher in 2000 and 2001, as well as Outstanding Teacher in the Department of Surgery in 1996, he was also named in 2005 to the Faculty Honour List for Teaching. In 2007 he was awarded the Philip Wolfson Outstanding Teacher Award by the Association for Surgical Education, which comprises more than 190 North American institutions and medical schools. Finally, from 2007 to 2009 Dr. Meterissian was an International Medical Education Travelling Scholar in Utrecht and Stockholm.

Prof. Morag Park is a Professor in the Departments of Oncology, Medicine, and Biochemistry. She is a Knight of the Ordre national du Québec, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, Distinguished James McGill Professor and holds the Diane and Sal Guerrera Chair in Cancer Genetics at McGill University.

Pr. Park received a B.Sc. from the University of Glasgow, a Ph.D. at the Medical Research Council Virology Institute in Scotland and completed postdoctoral training at the National Institutes for Cancer Research in Washington DC, US.

She joined McGill University in 1989, was the Scientific Director of the Institute of Cancer Research for the CIHR (2008-13), co-chair of the Canadian Cancer Research Alliance (2008-2010) and is now Director of the Rosalind and Morris Goodman Cancer Institute (2013-present).

She is a recipient of the Canadian Cancer Society Robert L. Noble Prize (2017), the Quebec Breast Cancer Foundation Grand Prix Scientifique (2019) and the Club de Recherches Cliniques du Québec Michel Sarrazin Award (2021).

Prof. Park is a research leader in receptor tyrosine kinases (RTK) and mechanisms of oncogenic activation of RTKs in human cancers and has pioneered studies of the breast tumour and immune microenvironment in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC). She has more than 270 publications, and an h-index of 88.

Pre Park est une leader de la recherche sur les récepteurs tyrosine kinases (RTK) et les mécanismes d’activation oncogène des RTK dans les cancers humains et a été pionnière dans les études sur la tumeur du sein et le microenvironnement immunitaire dans le cancer du sein triple négatif (CSTN). Elle compte plus de 270 publications et un indice h de 88.

Dr. Michel Pavic is a medical oncologist at the CIUSSS de l’Estrie-CHUS. He graduated in Internal Medicine and then in Oncology at the Claude Bernard-Lyon 1 University in France. He has been working at the CIUSSS de l’Estrie-CHUS since 2014.

Dr. Pavic is Head of service of Hemato-Oncology and Director of Research in Medical Oncology. He is also a researcher at the CHUS Research Center. He is involved in numerous clinical research projects testing new drugs in oncology, particularly for urological cancer, breast cancer and malignant hematology. He is also particularly interested in research on the benefits of physical activity in patients suffering from cancer or those who have been treated for cancer.

Dr Sideris obtained his MD degree in 1997 at the Université Laval. He completed his residency in General Surgery at the Université de Montréal and became Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians ans Surgeons of Canada in 2002. From 2002 to 2004, he conducted his fellowship training at the Gustave-Roussy Cancer Institute in Paris, France, and received a diploma in Clinical Oncology from the Université Paris XI in 2003.

His main areas of interest are: breast cancer, peritoneal surface malignancies, clinical research and teaching. From 2014 to 2016, he was the Associate Program Director of General Surgery at the Université de Montréal. Since July 2016, he is the Program Director of the Surgical Foundations at the Université de Montréal.

Dr. Theberge is a radiation oncologist at the CHU de Québec-Université Laval and a member of the Deschênes-Fabia breast disease center. She obtained her doctorate in medicine at Sherbrooke University and speciality diploma in radiation oncology at Laval University. She completed a fellowship in breast cancer at McMaster University in Ontario.

She is a researcher at the CHU de Québec research center and responsible for clinical research in breast cancer in radiation oncology at the CHU de Québec. She is a member of the executive committee for breast cancer research at the Canadian cancer trials group (CCTG).

Her main fields of interest are the improvement of radiotherapy techniques in breast cancer and the development of targeted treatments according to the biology of the disease with the aim of reducing side effects and improving the quality of life of patients. She is responsible of the quality assurance program for the randomized trial MA.39 evaluating regional irradiation for patients with breast cancer Luminal A, a North American CCTG trial.

Dr Younan has been a surgical oncologist at the CHUM since 2005. He is an associate clinical professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the Université de Montréal. Dr Younan did his Fellowship in Surgical Oncology at McGill University, the National Cancer Institute in the Netherlands, as well as the Cancer Institute in Milan, Italy.

His main interests are breast cancer, melanoma and peritoneal carcinomatosis. At the provincial and national level, he is very involved in activities linked to his academic interests and is the author of several scientific publications. He has been a clinical investigator since the start of his career in 2005.

Since 2016 when she was appointed Executive Director, Dr. Dominique Johnson has been leveraging her extensive experience in clinical research to engage hospitals and their teams, developing the Group’s activities. A graduate of the University of Montreal with a Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences and a specialty in cardiovascular clinical research, Dr. Johnson has been involved in clinical research for more than 20 years both in private and public health organizations. She has started her career in the pharmaceutical industry where she has significantly contributed to their cardiovascular clinical research program. In 2000, Dr. Johnson co-founded the Montreal Health Innovations Coordinating Center (MHICC), a division of the Montreal Heart Institute, an academic research organization, and has acted as its executive director for 16 years. She has been responsible for its establishment, development and growth and under her leadership, the MHICC has gained an international reputation. She has established a successful business model that supports both academic clinical research and contract research with the biopharmaceutical industry, as the presentation of the 2012 Innovation Award to MHICC by the Armand-Frappier Foundation demonstrates. She has also sat on Steering and Operations Committees of several large international phase III multi-center cardiovascular clinical trials. Dr. Johnson has developed many partnerships within the clinical research community, including the biopharmaceutical industry, clinical research organizations, investigators and healthcare institutions. In addition, Dr. Johnson is a faculty member of the International Partnership for Critical Markers of Disease (CMOD), supported by governmental regulatory agencies, where strategies to maximize clinical trial effectiveness are extensively discussed and where the broad goal is to create productivity toward improved patient healthcare. Dr. Johnson has authored more than 40 publications in journals including the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Journal and Atherosclerosis.

Nathalie Bolduc joined the McPeak-Sirois Group in August 2022 as Project Manager – Operations. Nathalie manages the Group’s initiatives and collaborates with the various teams and partners to promote synergy, achieve objectives, and efficiency in the realization of projects. A graduate of McGill University with a Master’s degree in genetic counselling, Nathalie has more than 25 years of experience in both the public and private health sectors where she acquired a unique combination of clinical expertise as well as in business development and the implementation of innovative clinical genetics services.

She managed an outreach clinical research program for families affected by hereditary breast and ovarian cancers at the CHUL Research Centre and later joined the MUHC where she worked in various specialties, including prenatal diagnosis, assisted reproductive technology as well as pediatric and adult general genetics. Nathalie revamped and led a provincial predictive testing program for Huntington’s disease for 7 years and collaborated with a First Nations community to develop educational videos for this condition.

Nathalie was President of Quebec Association of Genetic Counsellors and President of the Canadian Association of Genetic Counsellors. She is committed to making genetics accessible to professionals and the public through conferences, lectures, interviews in various media, and partnerships with non-profit organizations to create educational resources.