About Us

Established in 2006, in memory of Jon Glans and Jim Look, the Glans-Look Lung Cancer Research (GLR) database is Canada’s largest and only province-wide comprehensive lung cancer data repository. Using ‘real world’ data – drawn from all Albertans with a lung cancer diagnosis – the GLR specializes in collecting detailed demographic, clinical, genomic, treatment, and outcome measures on those individuals treated in standard oncology clinics throughout Alberta.

As personalized medicine – the ability to be given the right treatment at the right time, and in the right circumstances – has grown, so has the GLR database. Incorporating information on over 19,000 lung cancer diagnoses dating back to 1999, the GLR has a specific focus on new precision therapies for lung cancer – targeted therapies and immune checkpoint inhibitors – which increase in number, type, and availability every year, and have significantly changed how lung cancer is managed in Alberta.

GLR research provides evidence on how effective new therapies and management strategies optimize the outcome of ‘real-world’ Albertans with lung cancer. Supporting the Glans-Look Research Initiative means supporting the knowledge base about lung cancer which directly benefits patients, the medical and research community, and the broader healthcare system.