Junbum Im (B.C. Cancer Research Centre) Interview
By Johan Mendoza, student at New Westminster Secondary School
Junbum Im, pictured above. Image via Junbum Im.
When it comes to learning and educating about scientific topics such as cancer, one may not find a better source of information than scientists and researchers who devote their careers to these very fields. That is why we chose to reach out to Junbum Im, a researcher at the BC Cancer Research Centre in Vancouver, British Columbia. He kindly agreed to partake in this interview, wherein we hope that it may serve beneficial and educational to anybody reading.
June 28, 2024 // West Broadway, Vancouver.
Part I - Introductory Questions
Johan: Hello, who am I here with today?
Junbum: My name is Junbum, and I am currently doing a PhD in oncology at the BC Cancer Research Centre.
Johan: Can you tell me more about your position at the BC Cancer Research Institute?
Junbum: I study leukemias, and that is cancer involving the blood – my research is based off of how we can increase ways to treat it.
Johan: Could you provide a brief overview or summary of the BC Cancer Research Institute and what is done there?
Junbum: The institute stands for developing novel treatment modalities, ways for diagnosis, and early detection of cancer, essentially not just for BC, but for Canada as a whole to develop new research and techniques that can be implemented to increase survival odds for patients with cancer and, you know, because we have a clinic right across, we have a lot of great opportunities for translational research to bring what we discover in the labs towards the clinic as well.
BC Cancer Research Centre. Image via Henriquez Partners Architects.
Part II - General Questions About Cancer & Cancer Research
Johan: What do you feel the youth should be informed about, when regarding cancer?
Junbum: So, in terms of cancer, it is a phenomenon when your normal cells develop changes in your DNA that result in abnormal growth, and so this growth can take over your normal cells, it can take over organ functions, and it can lead to really bad circumstances. What’s important to know is that cancer comes in a huge variety; it’s not just one disease, but for every patient, it is a different type of cancer – it is a different outcome, and sometimes requires different treatment. So, one important thing is that we are taking big steps, but mostly small ones, and the pursuit to develop treatments of cancer is very slow and so we need more help, a lot more people, so for the youth, it is very important that if they want to pursue cancer research, they absolutely should contribute, and this is not a simple disease to cure; it is a very complicated and smart disease that we struggle every day to try to overcome.
Johan: What are some stigmas that come with the discussion of cancer that would be good to combat?
Junbum: Some stigmas. Let me go with the first one – there is no one cure to cancer. Of course, everyone talks about this, and often times, in the media as well, you’ll see a lot of news articles saying that this cancer is cured, that cancer is cured, but in reality, that’s not how that works. Cancer research is an ongoing process and will likely be a fight that will last decades and decades. And so, when people talk about cures, it’s not necessarily correct; it’s more of us trying to achieve or make cancer into a manageable disease – this is a way to think of it more realistically. The second kind of stigma of cancer research, or cancer as a whole, is that it’s a variable disease, and so, when people look into information about a certain type of disease and think this outcome will be what they get, it’s not always the case. I think patients that have cancer should communicate well with their physicians as to what their disease is, and it’s very important to know what it is. Just because a physician says you have a lymphoma, it doesn’t mean you can just google it and assume that information is exactly your situation. It’s very important to be caught up with exactly what you have and what treatments you’re getting, because it will be different for every person.
Johan: Similarly, what are some misconceptions you feel should be addressed?
Junbum: Yeah, so I’ll go on the avenue of diversity this time. This is a major issue that happens in cancer research, when you have a new treatment that you want to test. The patient demographic is also important. And so, often times, what happens is that in these clinical trials, you have a very predominant population of, let’s say one ethnicity or one gender – for example, many patients that are tested, usually 80% of them are Caucasian or white, and the minority groups are very underrepresented. You see sometimes in public articles or even in legitimate research articles saying that there’s a promising new treatment out there, but it might not necessarily work for other ethnic groups, compared to the majority of patients that are tested that are white. That is a big misconception that even scientists struggle with where clinicians hear of this treatment and then they try it on certain ethnicities and it doesn’t work as well, and they don’t know why, but research has shown that the tumors between different ethnic groups are very different, and they have different behaviors and phenotypes, and so it’s very important going forward in cancer research to be able to address these issues and be more aware of them.
Diversify Cancer Research Program by the BC Cancer Research Centre, hosted 2023. Image via GrasPods.
Johan: Do you feel anything could be done better/should be done when it comes to educating the youth about cancer?
Junbum: Yes. So, in terms of the youth of course, by the time most people don’t hear about cancer or any type of cancer research until much later on in their years, but, it’s very important to know about these things, to know about cancer specifically and what’s being done, and most likely, it’s kind of pessimistic but it’s true, at one point in your life, someone you know will be affected by cancer and it’s very important to know and to be aware of these things. One thing for the youth I think the youth should know is that cancer research is still in early stages, and if you have a real passion for it, you should definitely pursue this as a career. Media articles or people might say that it’s reaching a cure, but there’s still a lot of work to be done, and for those that have grown up in less than the majority of people’s situations where you might be a minority, you might be part of the LGBTQ+ community, these groups are very unaddressed in cancer research and so you are needed as part of that population, so don’t think you have to be a certain type of person to be able to do cancer research. If you really have the passion for it, you can definitely pursue it.
Johan: What can the youth do to become more involved with cancer research and cancer treatment?
Junbum: In terms of cancer research, I will say that there’s always things that can be done, even if you might not fully understand the disease or know about it. For example, cancer research has been having a lot of difficulty, especially in Canada, with funding, and so there’s always ways to contribute and help out in, for example, the community. Rasing funds for patients to be able to afford treatment, or for cancer research to be done on a particular type of cancer that you’d be interested in. But, to be honest, in terms of incidence, cancer will always be a frequently occurring disease – it's one of the biggest leads of death, and so we still have a long way to go in terms of things that we can do. But for the youth, of course, not much is incumbent on them to have to contribute to this, but they have so many things that they can contribute in terms of fundraising, learning about cancer as whole. It’s a very complicated disease, but, of course, they can learn about the basics.
Part III – Discussion of Oncology
Johan: How would you describe oncology?
Junbum: So, oncology is the study or the practice of medicine which involves cancer and the treatment of cancer, and so this includes learning about the disease, as well as learning how to treat it, and actively participate in treating it. Cancer research is a very broad subject in and of itself, and so there are many different branches of oncology. Because cancer is so complicated, most oncologists, cancer researchers, will focus on one specific component of it. For example, leukemias, myelomas, breast cancers, lung cancers. Most oncologists, physicians and scientists will primarily focus on one disease their entire life, practicing and studying, and so it encompasses a lot of different components. Very complicated topic, but as a whole, oncology encompasses all those different branches of cancer.
Johan: What can you say about your experiences working in the field?
Junbum: So from my experiences, cancer research is a lot of walking on an unmarked trail (because so much is not known about it). You sometimes don’t know where you’re going, you sometimes get a little lost, you sometimes accidentally go the wrong way. Progress is very slow, but at the same time, as you make progress, there is a lot of review. And so any time you want to present your data, anytime you want to publish it, there is a lot of feedback, a lot of scientists coming together to provide feedback on where you could go next, what you have to do to correct what you have, how good is the data so far. Of course, because it’s such a broad field, there’s no possible way of knowing every single component of your cancer, every single type of experiment, or every treatment out there, and so what really benefits cancer research (and especially here in BC) is that scientists are very collaborative, and so they like to combine what they know into one specific type of effort, one specific issue that they’re facing. A lot of treatments have been developed from large collaborations between different scientists of different specialties, and physicians as well conducting these trials. The two most important parts of cancer research are the process of being reviewed, having your data reviewed by scientists to make sure that you’re going the right way, as well as collaboration, where you really can’t do everything yourself. You need a team, it takes a whole village to develop even one small project. Those two components, from my experience, have been really key drivers of cancer research in this present day.
Johan: How did you get to working in the field? (Your pathway/journey)
Junbum: You know, it’s actually really funny, because ever since I was in, say, second grade, I always wanted to be a scientist, you know, everyone else got books, I loved to get those little chemistry sets, and so pretty much going throughout my entire life in schooling, I have always gravitated towards science. I didn’t know specifically that I wanted to do cancer research as a whole, but I have always been gravitating towards biology and physiology, chemistry, and so, going through my undergrad, and learning that I can work at labs during my second year, I joined a microbiology lab – I loved that one! – and then I joined a cancer research lab, and that’s really where my love for cancer research took off, and kind of discovering that this is the career path I wanted to go towards and that I really love, and so for me, it was very natural and I just followed the paths where I liked to go, and I think that was important for me to try these different avenues and to find out what I love and to pursue that. Johan: Do you have any advice you would give to aspiring oncologists? Junbum: Yes, absolutely! So, if you really enjoy, you know, the field of oncology and you really want to do research, I think the best way to discover is to try it, and it’s definitely not the end of the world if it’s not for you, but research is a very, very different career compared to anything you’ll ever do. I will also say that research is about failure and building upon failure after failure for those little successes, and so research is definitely not an easy career, but discovering that you really love, trying it out, and finding a passion for it is really what drives people to do research and to pursue that as a career, and so for anyone aspiring to do cancer research, I would say learn more about what specific type of research you want to do, and then kind of getting your feet wet a little bit, getting into labs, trying out a certain type of field. If you’re really passionate about lung cancer, then you can join a lung cancer lab to see how things operate, and how that career would fit you, and how that matches what you love to do. I think trying is definitely the best course of action, especially during your undergrad, where you can join labs and work part-time for them, that’s where a lot of people really find out if they really love it or choose a different career path.
Part IV – Discussion of BC Cancer Research Centre
Johan: You are situated in the Terry Fox Laboratory, correct? Can you tell us more about it?
Junbum: For anyone who doesn’t know, Terry Fox, I believe, had some type of osteosarcoma (bone cancer), and before his unfortunate passing, he wanted to do a big fundraiser and ran from, I believe, St. John’s, and attempted to run all the way to BC. Unfortunately, he couldn’t finish, but the money that he raised for this fundraiser was critical for the opening of several Terry Fox labs, including the one that I am working in currently. So, what happened was that the government of BC for this fundraiser provided funds to open this lab, and it was founded by Connie and Allen Eaves, and, actually, a funny story is that when their lab first opened, they needed a space for a lab, and this is one of the first cancer research labs around the area, and so they had to buy a bakery and set up a lab from the bakery, and this bakery served as a Terry Fox lab for quite some time, until 2005 when the BC Cancer Research Institute opened, and the Terry Fox labs then moved into the building. The Terry Fox lab focuses a lot on blood diseases and stem cell research, and it was led for a very long time Connie Eaves, who unfortunately recently passed, but the legacy that she has created is what the Terry Fox lab is today.
Terry Fox pictured above. Image via CBC.
Johan: Are there any other departments that would be noteworthy or interesting for youth to find out about more?
Junbum: Yeah, absolutely – there’s several notable branches. BC Cancer, the institute isn;t the only section of BC Cancer as a whole. There’s also the prostate center, there’s the genome sciences center, there’s the molecular oncology department. Of course, the genome sciences center is very famous for hosting two fantastic scientists, Janessa Laskin and Marco Marra, who have developed the POG Trial, the Personalized OncoGenomics trial. For those who don’t know what that is, it was actually hosted in a documentary called "Cracking Cancer" (Nature of Things), and what they do is they take samples from patients, they sequence the DNA, and see any potential targets that they can do, and they find these targets such as a clinician might be able to use them. This was a very effective method of treatment discovery, so that department is very noteworthy. And, molecular oncology, of course, hosts many famous scientists who have been nominated in the order of British Columbia, and scientists that have made groundbreaking discoveries in cancer research that involve single cell analysis, where you can look at individual cancer cells and distinguish them from one another.
Stills from the "Cracking Cancer" documentary. Images via CBC
Johan: What are some achievements you have seen in your time working at the BC Cancer Research Centre?
Junbum: Some achievements? Hmm... so, many scientists from our institute have been nominated to the order of BC, which is a big achievement for people that are in Cancer Research. Connie Eaves, who is kind of the godmother of the Terry Fox Department, I can’t even count how many notable awards she’s won, but yeah. In 2019, she won the Woman of the Year for Canada alongside Canada’s US Open champion, Bianca Andreescu, so that’s another way of highlighting how important cancer research is. She’s also been nominated to the Canadian medical hall of fame. Other notable people, I believe, Poul Sorensen has been nominated for the order of British Columbia; Allen Eaves, who is the godfather of the Terry Fox Department. He founded one of Canada’s biggest biotech companies called STEMCELL Technologies, he’s won Canada’s entrepreneur of the year, as well as being in the order of British Columbia as well, so yes, lots of notable achievements. Not only this, but in terms of scientific achievements as well, we have many scientists who publish many notable papers that have really impacted the field of cancer research, as well as winning very prestigious awards within their respective fields as well.
Drs. Connie and Allen Eaves. Image via BC Cancer Foundation.
