For Dr. Carl Brown, colorectal cancer treatment and surgery is more than a job: it’s a deeply personal mission. His own mother’s diagnosis in 2007 inspired him to explore innovative techniques to treat this challenging disease. With successful therapies, she went on to live for 15 more years.
“When I’m trying to help patients in clinical practice and research, I’m really driven by thinking of her and all the families that go through the difficulties we went through when she was diagnosed and treated with colorectal cancer,” he explains. “So I hold onto that memory.”
In Canada, colorectal cancer is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death.
Thanks to improved awareness, more research, increased colon cancer screening, better treatments, and compassionate physicians like Dr. Brown, patients now have more hope.
Building the colorectal research team
When Dr. Brown began working at St. Paul’s Hospital in 2006, he was one of just two colorectal surgeons.
Over time, he helped establish a team that prioritized clinical research, funded through partnerships with both grant-funded research projects and technology companies interested in advancing surgical care. He has grown the team, which now consists of five surgeons, in addition to research coordinators, graduate students, clinical fellows, and surgery trainees.
Today, St. Paul’s Hospital is a Centre of Excellence in Colorectal Surgery with a specific focus on colorectal cancer, inflammatory bowel disease treatment (IBD), and other lower gastrointestinal tract diseases.
Dr. Brown and his colleagues handle the most complex colorectal cases in BC and the Yukon, perform the most colorectal cancer surgeries in Western Canada, and train the next generation of colorectal surgeons.
“Providence Health Care has a long history of caring for people with stigmatized conditions, such as mental illness, substance use, and HIV. There is a different, but very real, stigma surrounding colorectal cancer – people are often embarrassed and reluctant to talk about it,” says Dr. Brown. “The work we do is to try to help people in some of their darkest days, with a cancer that they may not feel comfortable talking about with their friends and family.”
Global expertise in minimally invasive colorectal cancer surgery
Much of the research done by Dr. Brown and his team involves the use of technology to improve outcomes for patients with colorectal cancer, with a large focus on minimally invasive surgery and surgical techniques that reduce incisions and pain while improving the ability to reconstruct the bowel.
Dr. Brown recalls one happy patient whose tumor had shrunk to the point where he could remove it with a very minor operation.
“He told me he went kite surfing the day after surgery,” Dr. Brown says. “To be able to provide that for him, and these new treatments for patients in Vancouver and across British Columbia is one of the things I’m most proud of.”
Dr. Brown is a global leader in minimally invasive procedures such as Transanal Endoscopic Microsurgery and Transanal Total Mesorectal Excision (TaTME). Dr. Brown’s team has relationships with general surgeons across the province who send them patients to receive this care. This has allowed them to gain a high volume of experience with the novel techniques the team has developed.
“We’ve been able to offer [TaTME] to British Columbians, and that has really helped with their surgical recovery and their ability to have reconstruction after surgery,” says Dr. Brown.
He also introduced the Enhanced Recovery after Surgery program at St. Paul’s Hospital, an award-winning initiative that has improved the postoperative patient experience and reduced hospital stays.
“The common thread through most of the work I’ve done and the work we’ve done in collaboration with our team is that we apply technology and modern surgical techniques to try to both improve the outcomes of patients with regards to surviving cancer, but with always an eye towards survivorship and trying to make patients lives better – not just survive, but live.”
Dr. Carl Brown
Recognition from his peers: the Research and Mission Award
Dr. Brown was the recipient of the Providence Health Care 2023 Research and Mission Award to celebrate his remarkable contributions to colorectal cancer treatment and research.
This award recognizes a Providence Research scientist who demonstrates the mission and values of Providence Health Care while conducting outstanding research. Previous recipients include Drs. Anita Palepu, James Hogg, Bruce McManus, and Julio Montaner.
“These are luminaries of research and thought leaders in their respective fields, and Providence is an incubator for those types of thinkers. To be considered among that group of clinicians is an incredible honour,” says Dr. Brown.
He emphasizes that, while this award recognizes his work as an individual, it reflects the collective success of his entire team. And that success is rippling across the globe.
“The beauty of research is we can help patients around the world that we’ll never meet. And I find that impact to be incredibly powerful.”
Donations to St. Paul’s Foundation bring compassionate care to patients and families across Providence Health Care and Providence Living sites, fund life-changing research, and underpin the future of health care at the new Jim Pattison Medical Campus.
On February 22nd we are celebrating the Year of the Snake at our 18th annual Scotiabank Feast of Fortune Gala. Join us and help drive medical innovation throughout BC, shifting health care from the ordinary to the extraordinary!