Guelph, Ont. woman’s brain donation to cancer research inspires more donors

A Guelph, Ont. woman’s final gift of life has inspired an unprecedented contribution to Canadian cancer research.

Cindy Graham died in February 2021 after a 20 month-long battle with glioblastoma – a deadly form of brain cancer.

Her final wish was to preserve both her brain and spinal cord for research and donate them to the Sheila Singh Lab at McMaster University’s Cancer Research Centre in Hamilton, Ont.

“This was the first chance that we know of, certainly at this level, with real live tissue, so this was a whole new paradigm," said her husband Thomas Graham.

Cindy’s final act has inspired other donors to do the same, representing a new phase in cancer research.

"The excitement of what they can find out about this currently terminal disease, it's incredible," Thomas said.

Cindy Graham and her twin boys. (Courtesy: Thomas Graham)

DONATION INSPIRATION

Thomas remembers the day Cindy made the decision that would alter brain cancer research forever.

"Her thought was: ‘You can just take my tissue and something useful could come of that, even if it can't help me,’" he recalled.

Cindy is considered a pioneer because she not only donated her cancer cells, but also her brain and spinal cord for glioblastoma research.

That gift inspired 10 others to follow in her lead.

Cindy Graham and her twin boys. (Courtesy: Thomas Graham)

"From person to person [the cancer is] different. It's one of the reasons [why] it's so hard to fight this thing, but knowledge is power and knowledge is hope."

CINDY’S LEGACY

Cindy is not only being honoured in the medical field, but also back home in Guelph.

Every year, family-friend Amy Hunt-Brito sets up a light display around Christmastime to raise funds for cancer research.

Holiday display in memory of Cindy Graham at 33 Carter Rd. in Puslinch, Ont. (Hannah Schmidt/CTV Kitchener)

"For the past three years now we've been doing the foundation for donations,” she said. “I don't want to see families going through the same thing that they're going through, that they've been going through, so it's a great cause."

As glioblastomaresearch continues to grow, Amy says Cindy’s legacy continues to live on in more ways than one.

"As the data from Cindy’s [cancer] comes out, and all those who follow her, maybe [the diagnosis] won't be so bleak anymore," she said.

UPDATES IN GBM RESEARCH

Doctors and researchers call the donations from Cindy and the 10 others unique and unprecedented.

“Scientists have collected brains from [glioblastoma] patients on autopsy but almost always they are paraffin fixed in formalin,” a statement from Dr. Sheila Singh, the chief pediatric neurosurgeon at McMaster Children’s Hospital and the head of neurosurgery at Hamilton Health Sciences, read. “To retrieve live cells from multiple regions of a patient's [glioblastoma] shortly after death and establish cell lines, and also have fixed and frozen tissue captured from all of the different regions, is unprecedented.”

Her team is now in possession of 11 glioblastoma patient samples, which comprises the patient's entire brain and spinal cord, and the entirety of their glioblastoma. The scientific program that is built around these donations is called the Spatial Heterogeneity Challenge.

“We have 11 donors who have donated their brains to our lab within four hours of death, such that we can establish cell lines, frozen and paraffin fixed samples from multiple spatially distinct regions spanning their whole [glioblastoma] and brain at death,” Singh explained.

The goal is to eventually understand the regionally distinct drivers of the whole glioblastoma, rather than those of one tiny region revealed by the neurosurgeon’s initial biopsy.

“All of the donors' families have become friends and supporters of the Singh lab,” she said. “They have all reflected that they find this process massively uplifting and helpful to their grieving process, as they see the bright young researchers who are working 24/7 to develop new and effective therapies for [glioblastoma].”