Anne Gangloff

Important message to patients of the Lipid Disease Clinic : Please use the email address lipidologie@chudequebec.ca to contact Dr. Anne Gangloff. Phone: 418-654-2106. Fax: 418-654-2277. Please do not use research-related contacts. For any emergency, call 911.

Dr. Anne Gangloff is a physician and biochemist who specializes in medical biochemistry. She combines clinical research, basic research, and patient monitoring at the CHUL’s Lipid and cardiovascular prevention clinic. Dr. Gangloff is also active in teaching. With her colleagues, she supervises the medical aspects of CHUL’s hospital clinical laboratories.

Research program: The role of lipids and insulin resistance in cancers.

Dr. Gangloff’s research projects overlap with the Oncology (cancers), Endocrinology & Nephrology (lipids) research axes. Her projects include clinical studies as well as fundamental research on the role of lipids and insulin resistance in cancers.
Cancers and cardiovascular diseases are the two leading causes of death in Canada. Cholesterol is a common denominator in these two types of diseases since it is necessary for their progression. While excess circulating cholesterol leads to atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease, cholesterol is essential to support the growth and division of cells with very high metabolic demands, such as metastatic cancers. Cancers require significant supplies of cholesterol to:

1. Form the cell membrane of new tumor cells.
2. Form lipid rafts involved in signal transduction.
3. Synthesize various steroids, such as estrogens and androgens, involved in the progression of hormone-dependent cancers.

Recent years have seen the emergence of new powerful cholesterol-lowering therapies, such as PCSK9 inhibitors, which allow the induction of profound hypocholesterolemia when combined with a statin and ezetimibe. These therapies have already been used in the clinic since 2015 for the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases, and two of these agents are generic (ezetimibe and statins) and, therefore, inexpensive. It remains to be confirmed whether the simultaneous blocking of several cholesterol supply pathways using these drugs can deprive tumors of the large quantities of lipids and cholesterol which are necessary for their growth and metastasis. We hypothesize that blocking cholesterol will stop tumor growth (oncostatic effect) and that when combined with standard treatment, blocking cholesterol will increase the response to treatment.
Our first study investigates the feasibility of adding cholesterol supply pathway blockade to standard treatment in individuals with metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Other cancers for which blocking cholesterol supply will be tested are ovarian, digestive, triple-negative breast, and melanomas. In general, the more aggressive the cancer, the greater the lipid and cholesterol intake required to support progression. Therefore, these cancers are most likely to suffer the repercussions of a blockade of cholesterol supply pathways.

This research program capitalizes on Dr. Gangloff’s 20 years of university training, her expertise as a biochemist (Ph.D. studying hormone-sensitive cancers), as well as her medical and clinical expertise.