Former Yellowknifer gets $2.1M to study why chemotherapy is so hard on the heart

A health scientist who grew up in the N.W.T. has been awarded a $2.1-million grant to research why some chemotherapies lead to heart failure.

Gopinath Sutendra is going to look at chemotherapy drugs under the microscope and study their exact molecular pathways. He wants to see how something that can help fight cancer can also cause so much damage to the heart.

"A lot of cancer therapies are beneficial against the tumour, but a subset of these have to be discontinued in patients because (people) go on to develop heart failure and we don't know why," said Sutendra, who has also been awarded Chair of Cardio-Oncology for Alberta Innovates.

According to Statistics Canada, 40,000 people die of cardiac arrest in Canada every year. That's one person every 13 minutes.

Sutendra says the grant allows him to dive into his "top-tier research" right away, rather than waiting to establish funding and then starting the research months down the road.

He wants his research to not only find a way to protect the heart, but also improve the effects some chemo drugs have on tumours.

'Appreciating science'

Sutendra recalls his high school chemistry teacher Miss Ryan, who helped him appreciate the practicality of science.

After graduating from St. Patrick's High School in Yellowknife, Sutendra went on to study biochemistry. He got his PhD in cardiovascular medicine, wanting to become more "clinically relevant."

Sutendra says going to school in the North didn't restrict his learning at all.

"Sometimes we feel we're not as educated or our systems maybe aren't as good as those in the southern provinces, but they are. They're really good," Sutendra said.

'A close, connected place'

Sutendra says even though he's not living in the North now, it's still important to him. 

His parents moved from Sri Lanka to Canada in 1981, eventually settling in Inuvik, N.W.T.,  and then in Yellowknife. 

"We just loved the closeness to nature [in the N.W.T.,] the close-knit communities, and so we just had a great experience."

Sutendra's parents still live in Yellowknife and he brings his children up at least once a year.