Carolyn Nessim

Carolyn Nessim

MD, MSc, FRCSC, FACS

Clinician Investigator, Cancer Research

Ottawa Hospital Research Institute

Surgical Oncologist, Division of General Surgery

The Ottawa Hospital

Assistant Professor of Surgery, Department of Surgery

The University of Ottawa

Program Director, Surgical Oncology Fellowship Program

The University of Ottawa

Contact

613-737-8899 ext 71085

Fax: 613-737-8659 www.carolynnessim.com

Bio

Dr. Carolyn Nessim is a Surgical Oncologist at the Ottawa Hospital and Assistant Professor of Surgery at the University of Ottawa. She completed her MD, MSc (Biomedical Sciences) and General Surgery Residency at the University of Montreal. Her fellowship training was in Surgical Oncology at the University of Toronto and then at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Center in Melbourne Australia.

She is currently also a Clinician Investigator in the Cancer Therapeutics Program at The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI) as well as the Program Director for the Complex Surgical Oncology Subspecialty Fellowship training program. Her clinical practice focuses on the treatment of patients with Soft Tissue Sarcoma/GIST, Melanoma/Skin Cancers, Gastric cancer and Neuroendocrine Tumours. She is the Regional Co-Lead for Melanoma and Skin Cancers and Gastric Cancer in the Champlain LHIN. She has been invited as a speaker and moderator at several national and international conferences on the topics of Sarcoma and Melanoma. She is a member of Cancer Care Ontario's Skin Cancer Advisory Board as well as the American Society of Clinical Oncology's Technical Expert Group for Melanoma.

Research Goals and Interests

Dr. Carolyn Nessim's main research interests involve evaluating outcomes of cancer treatments using large databases for Melanoma, Soft Tissue Sarcoma, Gastric Cancer and Merkel Cell Carcinoma. Her other interests include understanding the immunology of Soft Tissue Sarcoma and Melanoma. She collaborates with scientists at OHRI doing translational projects looking at the role of oncolytic viruses, NK cells and T-cells in the treatment strategies for Sarcoma and Melanoma. She is the lead of the Research Evaluation Committee of the Trans-Atlantic Australasian Retro-Peritoneal Sarcoma Working Group (TARPSWG) and is a member of the Canadian Melanoma Research Network (CMRN). She is also an active member of the Ontario Cancer Research Ethics Board (OCREB) and the Chair for the Surveillance Subcommittee for Melanoma for the Canadian Cancer Trials Group (CCTG). 

Dr. Carolyn Nessim's main research interests involve understanding the immunology of Soft Tissue Sarcoma and Melanoma. She collaborates with scientists at OHRI doing translational projects looking at the role of oncolytic viruses, NK cells and T-cells in the treatment strategies for Sarcoma, GIST and Melanoma/Merkel Cell Carcinoma (MCC). Of particular interest, is identifying biomarkers of response to treatment. She has a particular interest in the evaluation of Liposarcomas as well as Unknown Primary Melanomas. She also leads and collaborates on many clinical research projects evaluating the treatment of Sarcoma/GIST and Melanoma/MCC. She is a member of the Trans-Atlantic Retro-Peritoneal Sarcoma Working Group (TARPSWG) and Global Melanoma Research Network (GMRN). She is also an active member of the Ontario Cancer Research Ethics Board (OCREB) and the Canadian Cancer Trials Group (CCTG).


News


Publications

Survival Outcomes in the Canadian Merkel Cell Carcinoma Population Between 2000 and 2018 and Descriptive Comparison with the American Joint Committee on Cancer 8th Edition Staging System—A Study from the Pan-Canadian Merkel Cell Collaborative

2025-10-01 Go to publication

Role of a Polyphenol-Enriched Blueberry Preparation on Inhibition of Melanoma Cancer Stem Cells and Modulation of MicroRNAs

2024-01-01 Go to publication

Prioritizing Melanoma Surgeries to Prevent Wait Time Delays and Upstaging of Melanoma during the COVID-19 Pandemic

2023-09-01 Go to publication

Data Dissemination of the Role of Neoadjuvant Radiation in Retroperitoneal Sarcoma: A CTOS and CSSO Survey

2023-06-01 Go to publication

Related Research at The Ottawa Hospital