Simone Chevalier (PhD)
Professor
BSc, MSc, PhD
Currently supervising students
To establish the clinical and functional significance of protein kinases implicated in the androgen-independent progression of human prostate cancer. Development of new therapeutic modalities for prostate cancer in animal models.Â
My research focuses on prostatic diseases, benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and prostate cancers (PCa) that spontaneously arise in men 50 years or older. Our mechanistic studies involve the use of diverse in vitro and in vivo approaches to characterise key molecules of signaling pathways mediated by androgens and growth-promoting factors in heterogeneous cell populations of the human and dog prostate cells, tumours and metastases. We also focus on circulatory molecules as potential biomarkers of PCa witnessing tumor cells as they evolve with progression. To translate our findings to patients, we implemented a PCa biobank and adopted a large animal (canine) model of PCa.Â
- Liquid biopsies to identify new markers of lethal prostate cancer
- Prostate cancer progression.
- Intra-tumoral heterogeneity and diversity of prostate cell subtypes
Prostatic diseasesÂ
I joined the McGill Dept of Surgery as an Associate Professor in 1994 to become the director of new research facilities being built at the RI-MUHC of the Montreal General Hospital for the Urologic Oncology Research Team. We integrated the Cancer Research Program of the RI-MUHC at the Glen site in 2015. Being a prostate cancer scientist since the very beginning of my career, I became deeply involved in the creation of the pan-provincial PROCURE Prostate Cancer Biobank in 2007 and directed its operations for 10 years. I remain a consultant for matters related to the Biobank. We recently undertook a project aiming to prospectively interrogate tumours of specific subsets of patients in this cohort of 2,000 patients to identify molecular drivers of prostate cancer lethality and to trace best markers back in liquid biopsies throughout the disease trajectory of the same patients. This type of translational research has become of paramount importance to impact on outcome and death from prostate cancer. I am now a Senior Scientist and as such, I always gladly take time for patients who contact me to know more on ongoing research and novelties in the field of cancer, and particularly prostate cancer.Â