When I visited the Rosalind and Morris Goodman Cancer Centre, the weather was blustery and cold, and the blazing red leaves of the maple trees contrasted sharply with the understated, elegant slate grey building on Pine Avenue West, near the Royal Victoria Hospital. Inside, the hallways were still unfinished, ladders leaned against unpainted walls, and a pleasant smell of plywood was in the air.

I was ushered into the small, but cozy, corner office of the Centre’s Director since 2000, Michel L.Tremblay. The wide windows offered a view onto the rain-drenched slope of the mountain. Dr. Tremblay arrived soon after, and joined me informally at the round table near his desk. He pointed out, as I took notes, that he uses the initial L. to distinguish himself from other Michel Tremblays in Quebec, such as the famed playwright. He is animated, with a soft-spoken enthusiasm for the new state-of-the-art building that was part of his mandate to expand from the original centre: “At the McGill Cancer Centre, which has a thirty-year history, and generations and generations of good science, we were all split around. While everywhere in North America, they were building new spaces, new resources, here at McGill, we were at risk of losing good scientists, not being able to do the most exciting research we needed to do. So I worked with many other people on bringing this new building here.”

As Dr. Tremblay explains, with the ease of a skilled communicator, fundamental research which takes place at the Centre, gives new tools for the oncologists’ “toolbox” and helps to understand cancer, which is a complex of diseases. Research has led to “incredible successes,” such as an increase in the survival rate for children with leukemia, and breast cancer patients. And research in cancer has lead to important discoveries in treatment or prevention of other diseases such as obesity and diabetes or spinal cord regeneration.

Dr. Tremblay, who was born in Quebec City, has a personal investment in finding a cure for breast cancer since he lost his mother to this disease. Dr. Tremblay studied under Dr. Philip Branton at McMaster University, and later did research at the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. He is modest about his own work though his research team made a breakthrough which was honoured as a “Discovery of the Year 2007” by Quebec Science magazine.

The Goodman Cancer Centre is named after Rosalind and Morris Goodman, the latter being the  founder of Pharmascience Inc. and a trailblazer in the business of generic drugs. “Their donation came at the right time,” Dr. Tremblay asserts, then adds: “Rosalind Goodman requested that their gift be used in part towards lung cancer research. Even if everyone stopped smoking today, people would still die from lung cancer as there are long-term effect of tobacco usage and other causes, some known like asbestos, some still to be discovered.” Lung cancer is, according to the Canadian Cancer Society, on the increase, especially among women and is too often fatal. “We want to recruit an internationally-reknowned scientist who will dedicate her or his research to lung cancer,” Dr. Tremblay underlines, “This is extremely important to us.”

The Goodman Cancer Centre is part of McGill University’s new Life Sciences Complex which was funded by the Quebec Government, the CFI, and the Bellini family. It includes the renovated seventh floor of the adjacent McIntyre Medical Sciences Building. There is now a walkway that connects the two buildings which are different in style, the McIntyre being a huge metal and glass construction from another era.

Though the completion of the Morris and Rosalind Goodman Cancer Centre took a few years  longer than its director anticipated, he agrees it was “worth the wait.” Dr. Tremblay is now confident that McGill University, and Montreal, cradles a new cancer research centre that will have an international profile as it fulfills its mission to perform the best research possible, translate this to the clinic, and train the new generation of cancer researchers.  He also stresses that it will inform the public of the great importance of basic science in finding a final cure to this widespread disease.

“In all of those goals,” Dr. Tremblay remarks warmly, “we need all the help we can get.”