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Dr. Sirois

Dr. Christian Sirois, thoracic surgeon

by Anne Cimon

Dr. Christian Sirois is a thoracic surgeon who specializes in the treatment of lung cancer which is, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada, the cancer causing the most deaths among Canadians. Dr. Sirois has an extreme schedule at the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) where he works since 2001. The waiting list for surgeries is endless.


His main office is located at the Montreal General Hospital. He cannot forget the tragic day of September 13, 2006, when he was part of the the Montreal General's Trauma team who treated the wounded students from the Dawson College shooting. The young woman he operated on with a colleague, was a survivor.
Dr. Sirois is called to do operations in a circuit across Mount-Royal which includes the Jewish General, the Royal Victoria, and St. Mary's hospitals. He also works at the Montreal Chest Institute on St.Urbain Street, a hospital that is well-known for its ground-breaking research in respiratory diseases since its inception over a hundred years ago. Dr. Sirois is a member of the Lung Cancer Program at the MUHC. This program has been awarded a Level 4 (supra regional), by the Quebec Government, which is the highest level of care. It is the only hospital in the province to have received this distinction in thoracic oncology.


Dr. Sirois has extensive training in three specialties which is exceptional. In 2004, Dr. Sirois was one of six specialists chosen to appear in a feature documentary on lung cancer for Télé-Québec "Vivre avec la mort" in which he was filmed performing an operation and teaching the residents.       

    
Born in Quebec City, he entered Laval University Medical School in 1988. It was there he discovered a passion for the study of anatomy and eventually obtained his certificate in General Surgery. In 1997, he enrolled in the Thoracic Surgery Residency Program at the University of Toronto where he had the privilege to have Dr. Griffith Pearson as a teacher. Dr. Pearson, the reknowned Canadian pioneer in thoracic surgery, had supervised the team of specialists who succesfully performed the first lung transplant in a patient at the Toronto General Hospital in 1983.  Dr. Sirois did several lung transplantation but decided eventually to specialize in thoracic oncology.


In 1999, he graduated from the University of Toronto and subsequently obtained his certificate in Thoracic Surgery from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. Finally, he trained in a third specialty, Cardiothoracic Surgery, at the University of Illinois in Chicago from 1999 to 2001, where he received certification from the American Board of Thoracic Surgery.


When asked why he became a surgeon, Dr. Sirois reflects that it might have had its beginning at twelve years old when his paternal grandfather, who was a smoker, died of lung cancer. In fact, this loss affected the whole family deeply, for his brother, Marco, and two sisters, Chantal and Cateline, also became thoracic surgeons and they now work in different hospitals in Quebec. This is even more remarkable since their parents aren't in the medical field.


"I don't know if I influenced my brother and sisters in their choice of specialty," Dr. Sirois, who is the eldest in the family, answers thoughtfully. He then adds jokingly: "I am sure they would laugh and deny it anyway."
An enthusiast of race cars, Dr. Sirois had the opportunity to join the medical team for the Canadian Grand Prix Formula 1 and NASCAR at Montreal's Gilles-Villeneuve track and he will be returning in 2010. "I appreciate the ambiance of the race," he says. "It also allows me to spend a few hours outside of the hospital!"

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Profil: Dr Christian Sirois, chirurgien thoracique
par Anne Cimon

Le Dr Christian Sirois est un chirurgien thoracique et spécialiste en cancer du poumon. Il s'agit d'un cancer cité comme le plus mortel chez les Canadiens d'après les statistiques de l'Agence de la santé publique du Canada. L' horaire du Dr Sirois  est extrêmement chargé au Centre universitaire de santé McGill (CUSM) où il travaille depuis 2001. Il y' a une liste d'attente continuelle pour des chirurgies.
Son bureau principal se situe à l' Hôpital général de Montréal. Une journée des plus marquantes à cet hôpital pour le Dr Sirois fût celle du 13 Septembre 2006 quand il se joignit à l'équipe de traumatologie qui a reçu les victimes de la fusillade au Collège Dawson. La jeune étudiante qu'il a opérée avec un collègue fût une des survivantes.


Le Dr Sirois est appelé à opérer sur un circuit qui fait le tour du Mont-Royal, soit à l'Hôpital général juif, au Royal Victoria, et au Centre hospitalier de St-Mary's. Il voit également des patients à l'Institut thoracique sur la rue St-Urbain, un établissement renommé pour la recherche avancée dans les maladies respiratoires depuis son ouverture il y' a plus de cent ans. Il est membre du Programme de cancérologie du poumon au CUSM. Ce programme a été décerné le Niveau 4 (supra régional) par le gouvernement du Québec. D'ailleurs le CUSM est le seul hôpital dans la province qui a reçu cette distinction pour l'oncologie thoracique.
Le Dr. Sirois a une formation dans trois spécialités, ce qui est exceptionnel. En 2004, le Dr Sirois a été choisi comme l'un des six spécialistes interviewés pour le documentaire "Vivre avec la mort," une production de Télé-Québec sur le cancer du poumon. Il a été filmé dans la salle d'opération enseignant à des résidents.

Né à Québec, le Dr Sirois a commençé à la Faculté de médecine de l'Université Laval en 1988 et c'est à ce moment qu'il a développé une passion pour l'étude de l'anatomie. Après avoir obtenu son certificat en chirurgie générale, il a étudié à l'Université de Toronto en 1997 au programme de résidence en chirurgie thoracique. Il a eu le privilège d'être un étudiant du Dr Griffith Pearson dont la réputation est internationale en tant que pionnier en chirurgie thoracique. Le Dr Pearson avait d'ailleurs supervisé à l'Hôpital général de Toronto en 1983, l'équipe qui a réussi la première transplantation de poumons dans un patient. Pendant sa formation, Dr Sirois a effectué lui-même plusieurs transplantations de poumons mais a plutôt décidé de se spécialiser en oncologie.


En 1999, il a obtenu un diplôme à l'Université de Toronto et la certification en chirurgie thoracique du Collège royal des médecins et chirurgiens du Canada. Sa formation dans une troisième spécialité, la chirurgie cardiothoracique, c'est faite à l'Université de l'Illinois à Chicago de 1999 à 2001.
En réponse à la question pourquoi est-il devenu un chirurgien thoracique, le Dr  Sirois réfléchit un moment et répond  que cela a possiblement eu origine à l'âge de douze ans quand son grand-père paternel, qui était fumeur, est décédé d'un cancer du poumon. En fait, ce décès a touché toute la famille car son frère Marco, et ses soeurs, Chantal et Cateline, sont aussi chirurgiens thoraciques et travaillent dans différents hôpitaux du Québec. Cependant aucun de leurs parents ont étudiés en médecine.


"Je ne sais pas si j'ai influencé mon frère et mes soeurs dans leur choix de spécialité," remarque le Dr Sirois, qui est l'aîné de la famille. Il ajoute avec un grand sourire et à la blague: "Ils diraient tous non de toute façon!"


Un enthousiaste de la course automobile, le Dr Sirois a eu l'opportunité de faire partie de l'équipe médicale du Grand Prix Formule 1 et de NASCAR au circuit Gilles-Villeneuve de Montréal et sera de retour en 2010: "J'apprécie bien l'ambiance de la course," dit-il. "Cela me permets aussi de passer quelques heures en dehors de l'hôpital!" 

 

 


garden
Dr. Michel Tremblay

The Goodman Cancer Centre

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.”
 
©Anne Cimon 2009
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
   
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