James Perry

Dr Perry was International co-PI of the “Elderly Glioblastoma Trial” which found that the addition of chemotherapy to radiation doubled the median survival of patients over the age of 65 with glioblastoma. This was selected as one of 4 Plenary Sessions at the American Society for Clinical Oncology (out of 6,000 abstracts), named “Best of ASCO” and eventually published in the New Journal of Medicine with Dr Perry as first author in 2016.

His team had high media exposure as they managed the illness of Gord Downie, the lead singer of the Tragically Hip. Millions of dollars were directed to brain tumour research including the establishment of the Gord Downie Brain Tumour Fellowship award.

Dr Perry is a Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology (FAAN), and was awarded the Sunnybrook Department of Medicine Senior Investigator award.  He then became the Provincial Lead for CNS Cancers at Cancer Care Ontario.

From 2020 to present Dr Perry is engaged in the leadership of the GBM-AGILE study which is a global adaptive randomized study testing new approaches to glioblastoma treatment. He serves AGILE as a country PI and on the Steering Committee of the trial.  In 2023 the results of the INDIGO trial describing a breakthrough targeted therapy for gliomas were presented and published in the NEJM. Dr Perry led this study for Canada and presented the drug vorasidenib to Health Canada for regulatory approval. This represents the 3rdpractice-changing clinical trial in brain tumour that he has lead, setting new standards of care globally, as reflected in international practice guidelines.

He remains Chairman of the Canadian Brain Tumour Consortium, the national not-for-profit research network which organizes brain tumour clinical trials. Dr Perry was recently elected to the Executive Committee of the Medical Dental Staff Association at Sunnybrook.