Mr. Speaker, in men, prostate cancer is the second most common type of cancer and the second greatest cause of death from cancer.
However, thanks to a recent breakthrough achieved with the help of funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, there is hope in the fight against this disease.
A team under Dr. Simard, working in the T wing of the Laval University CHUL research centre, and Dr. Johanna Rommens, of the Toronto children's hospital, have recently discovered the gene causing prostate cancer.
This discovery is important because of the difficulty in determining the specific genes causing diseases such as cancer. Although it is still too soon to develop a genetic test to screen for this type of cancer, this discovery will be a springboard to other very important discoveries.
Dr. Simard and Dr. Rommens are true Canadian heroes and I am proud to be a member of a government—