The Tribune

A $1-MILLION donation from a patient is helping to pay for the development of a new research centre at The Cancer Centre.

The $1,000,000 donation is the initial funding for the Cancer Centre Research Centre, at 72 Collins Avenue, according to Professor Arthur Porter, its managing director.

Dr Porter, who is currently wanted to answer fraud charges in Canada, said he was delighted that the centre was now operational.

“We are currently able to provide the treatments of today, and now we can be part of the process to develop the treatments of tomorrow,” he said.

“All research studies will be carefully reviewed by appropriate ethics and institutional review boards. In addition to treatment based research, the centre will conduct detailed evaluations of the treatments already conducted to date within the centre,” said Dr Porter, who served as chairman of the PLP government’s National Task Force on Stem Cell Therapy.

Dr Conville Brown, president and CEO of the Medical Pavilion, said Dr Porter had been able to ensure the centre remains at the forefront of quality oncology care – being the only centre outside of North America with American College of Radiation Oncology accreditation – and now it would take a timely next step into research.

Dr Robin Roberts, director of the UWI School of Clinical Medicine and Research, said he was delighted and looked forward to seeing research data in the Bahamas, generated in the Bahamas and relevant to the Bahamas.

The centre plans a formal opening at a later date, when Dr Porter will be in a position to attend.

“Unfortunately, I’m now a physician turned patient – for the moment – but I’m certain that it will be research that will create new therapies to beat these cancers, and I can truly say that I have a vested interest,” he said.

Dr Porter, who recently announced that he has lung cancer, remains in charge of the centre as well as the Caribbean Strategy, although he has devolved some of the operational responsibilities to staff and colleagues.

The Research Centre has hired its first research associate and is currently operational, he said.

Meanwhile, in Canada authorities say they are continuing to work on Dr Porter’s arrest following the Montreal airport arrest of a Nassau resident who was wanted on similar fraud charges.

Quebec’s anti-corruption squad said yesterday that Jeremy Morris was arrested by authorities on arrival at the Montreal-Trudeau Airport as he entered the country from the Bahamas Monday night. He appeared in court yesterday.

Arrest warrants were sent out for Mr Morris, Dr Porter and three other men last month, after investigators had probed allegations of fraud at Montreal’s McGill University Health Centre (MUHC), where Dr Porter served as former chief administrator until his resignation in 2011.

Dr Porter is wanted on charges of committing fraud against the government, accepting bribes, and conspiracy.

In January, he hit back at “spurious” allegations surrounding his business ventures, and tenure and resignation from MUHC.

According to The Globe & Mail newspaper in Canada, the Quebec government released the results of an audit that found MUHC’s planned deficit of $12-million has ballooned to $115-million – a financial state so precarious that the hospital network has been assigned a special overseer to monitor its spending.

Quebec’s anti-corruption task force has also alleged that the hospital network was the victim of fraud in connection with its planned super-hospital.