Dr. Oliver Bathe named Wayne Foo Professor in Surgical Oncology

Congratulations to Dr. Oliver Bathe who was appointed the Wayne Foo Professor in Surgical Oncology! Supported by a generous gift from the Wayne Foo Family Foundation through the Alberta Cancer Foundation, the Wayne Foo Professorship in Surgical Oncology was established to support the professorship holder in engaging in independent and collaborative research; generating unique learning opportunities for trainees; building a programmatic area of research, education, and care in surgical oncology; and providing leadership in research and knowledge transfer.

Dr. Bathe is Professor of Surgery and Oncology at the University of Calgary. He is a surgical oncologist with a special interest in hepatobiliary, pancreatic, and gastrointestinal tumors. His clinical research interests relate to improving clinical outcomes in cancers of the liver, pancreas, and GI tract. As a result of his clinical trial involvement, he is a member of the CCTG Clinical Trials Group Gastrointestinal Tumor Group Executive, Co-chair of the CCTG Hepatobiliary Working Group, and member of the Intergroup Hepatobiliary Task Force. He also has a basic and translational research program. His lab is focused on understanding the host response against tumor, particularly the metabolic changes that accompany tumor growth and metastasis. He directs the University of Calgary Hepatobiliary and Gastrointestinal Tumor Bank, which currently houses over 22,000 samples from almost 4,000 patients. His tumor banking efforts have attracted a number of national and international collaborations, including with The Cancer Genome Atlas Project (TCGA) and the Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium (CPTAC).  Most recently, his work has involved mapping the metabolomic features of various hepatobiliary, pancreatic, and gastrointestinal tumors, which has led to the development of diagnostic blood tests for pancreatic cancer and colorectal cancer.

His clinical practice in hepatobiliary, pancreatic and gastrointestinal surgical oncology is blended with his research activities. He is currently supervising several residents on clinical research projects pertaining to the management of advanced biliary cancers, outcome prediction with post-operative liver failure, and determining the influence of cancer cachexia on operative and survival outcomes. He also runs a translational research program aimed at understanding how the tumor and the host interact, mostly from a metabolic perspective. This involves gaining an appreciation of the epiphenomena that dictate the host metabolic response as well as the tumor signals that stimulate that metabolic response. Inflammation is one such epiphenomenon. He has several long-standing and productive research collaborations with provincial partners, national partners, and international collaborators.

As Professorship holder, Dr. Bathe will lead and conduct research in surgical oncology that captures the strength and breadth of expertise in surgical oncology, including the diagnosis, treatment, and surgical management of cancerous tumors, at the Cumming School of Medicine and the Arnie Charbonneau Cancer Institute.