Category: News

Read what the media has been reporting on Atlantic PATH and the Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow Project.

DataNB Celebrates 10 Years of Research and Impact

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Our colleagues at DataNB are celebrating 10 years of Research and Impact. Their anniversary event will bring you together with researchers to highlight how our data and research have informed policies that touch the everyday lives of New Brunswickers — from health to education, population dynamics, and more. Date: Dec. 1, 2025, 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. Location: Richard J. Currie Center Long Hall Registration: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/celebrating-10-years-of-research-impact-tickets-1765466912059?aff=oddtdtcreator

Participant Town Hall (Nov 17th)

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Less than two weeks before the upcoming Atlantic PATH and CanPath Participant Town Hall! On Monday, November 17th, you can learn about how we are “Preventing Cancer, Together: How your Data is Driving Discoveries.” Join us at the Town Hall to learn how the data and biological samples provided by our participants are used to study cancer and chronic disease and support exciting scientific discoveries. When: Monday, November 17, 2025 1-230pm Atlantic Time Where: Online Zoom Meeting Watch your email inbox for an invitation and additional details! If you have changed your contact information, please reach out: https://www.atlanticpath.ca/index.php/contact-us/ You can also register here (http://bit.ly/4nRdVHh) and submit your questions to be answered during our panel discussion. Please note, the webinar will be recorded and shared afterwards on YouTube.

Breast Cancer Research in Canada

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Empower yourself with knowledge: How CanPath is reshaping breast cancer research in Canada  For decades, race and ethnicity have been largely missing from breast cancer research in Canada. The Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow’s Health (CanPath) is working to close that gap by studying how screening participation, treatments, risk factors, and outcomes differ across racial and ethnic groups, with the goal of informing more equitable, evidence-based screening guidelines.  CanPath is Canada’s largest population health study, supported by over 330,000 participants across Canada who provide life-changing health data to help our researchers uncover important links between lifestyle, genetics and health.   This October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and with a recent $300K investment from the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), CanPath is highlighting the amazing work from our researchers to examine differences in breast cancer screening participation, treatments, and outcomes by race and ethnicity, and identify how risk factors vary across groups.  Through this research, CanPath plans to inform more equitable screening guidelines and prevention approaches by providing currently missing data on race and ethnicity, helping to ensure that breast cancer screening reflects the diverse needs of all Canadian women.  “Empower yourself with knowledge about your personal risk factors, family history of disease and seek out regular screening given that 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed in their lifetime,” advises Prof. Victoria Kirsh, CanPath’s Scientific Coordinator and Assistant Professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health (DLSPH). “CanPath is an amazing resource with a rich data set on lifestyle, environment, genetic, and dietary data so the research possibilities are really endless”.  CanPath is committed to a future without cancer and is dedicated to providing the necessary research to transition this goal into reality for all women.  What has been missing  Canada’s population continues to change with a growing diverse population, yet little information is out there about the effects of race and cancer outcomes. Genetics, lifestyle and environment all play key roles in risk for cancers however the effect of race remains understudied. “I think the project as a whole is inspiring to begin with, we’re looking at racial disparities in breast cancer outcomes, and that’s something that has been on the back burner or not even investigated for a really, really long time,” highlights Fatima Zulfiqar, a CanPath practicum student who spent her summer supporting this project’s development. “I know that there are various women of color who have certain predispositions when it comes to breast cancer and so having this conversation and looking at the nuances that race plays in breast cancer outcomes is important.”  Historically, marginalized groups have been left out of research, leading to issues with generalizing findings to a larger population. Issues with accessibility to breast cancer care continue to persist and require a deeper dive to tear down the barriers within healthcare.  “It’s very important to study [breast cancer] and look at it and understand it from a real life perspective of how it’s impacting women, who are seeking care or not seeking care and what those differences are and how we can probe them and explore them and hopefully make breast cancer care and diagnosis more accessible to all of them,” said Marilla Hulls, an MPH Epidemiology practicum student who supported another CanPath project objective related to breast cancer screening. Be the link that bridges the gap  Much remains to be uncovered in breast cancer research, and CanPath is committed to supporting young researchers in their journey to create a long-lasting impact within the field. These upcoming researchers are working to close evidence gaps in breast cancer risk, screening and outcomes across racial and ethnic groups in Canada.  “If you’re looking for an area that’s really impactful, we know that breast cancer affects a lot of people in Canada. Even if it’s not yourself that has breast cancer, you probably know someone who has breast cancer or who has been affected,” says Ashley Mah, a doctoral student working on the project. “This is a really great area of research to work in and it’s really collaborative and you get to meet so many amazing people including clinicians, other researchers, students, trainees as well as patients”.  Breast cancer research is only made possible by the participation of Canadians who offer their information to provide the necessary data to drive new discoveries. Our participants make it possible to analyze patterns in screening, diagnosis and treatment across diverse communities and their dedication does not go unappreciated.  “Going through the process has taught me a lot. Those numbers are not just data points, they’re actually human beings, they have volunteered their information to help us make our research move forward and it’s very rewarding,” says Feifan Xiang, a data analyst for the study.  More to be done  Acknowledging the effect of breast cancer on the public is just the beginning of a dedicated investigation to making breast cancer screening more widely available, comprehensive and culturally appropriate to ensure women everywhere receive the care they need.  CanPath is continually working to link cancer databases with participant information to analyze screening results, including recall and biopsy rates, and inform more equitable prevention, detection and treatment strategies in Canada.  For more information, please contact: Megan FlemingCommunications & Knowledge Translation OfficerCanadian Partnership for Tomorrow’s Health (CanPath)info@canpath.ca

Canadian Cancer Research Conference 2025 (Calgary, AB)

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CanPath and its regional cohorts will be well represented at the Canadian Cancer Research Conference taking place in Calgary, AB from November 2-4, 2025. This conference “brings together the Canadian cancer research community for an agenda spanning the research spectrum. This is an ideal opportunity for researchers, trainees, clinicians, decision-makers, and patients to hear the latest developments in Canadian cancer research and network across research disciplines.” Oral presentations include: Dr. Maryam Darvishian, University of British Columbia Dr. Darvishian will present on i) breast cancer screening engagement among women with different ethnic backgrounds; and ii) predictors of participation in cervical cancer screening. Dr. Mariam Mehran, Q-CROC (Clinical Research in Oncology) Dr. Mehran will present on the lifetime occupational and domestic environmental exposures and breast cancer risk. Poster presentations include: Dr. Travis Hrubeniuk, Manitoba Tomorrow Project/Cancer Care Manitoba Dr. Hrubeniuk will present on the lessons learned in building a population-based cohort for cancer research. Katarina Maksimovic, MSc, Ontario Institute for Cancer Research Katarina will present on biobanks, research and resources related to oncology samples and data. Dr. Sam Kenston, University of British Columbia Dr. Kenston will present data related to the built environment and its impact on adherence to cancer prevention guidelines, cancer incidence and mortality. Laura Pelland-St-Pierre, University of Montreal Laura will present on occupational exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals and breast and prostate cancer. Dr. Rachel Murphy, University of British Columbia Dr. Murphy will present on new opportunities for exploring diet and activity across the cancer trajectory. Theresa Vo, MSc, Memorial University Theresa will present on a study that will focus on repeated breast cancer screening uptake among Chinese immigrants. Alyssa Milano, MSc, BC Cancer Alyssa will present on precision cancer prevention and unravelling heterogeneity in dietary intake and metabolic health. Jean Claude Bigenimana, BC Cancer Jean Claude will present on using natural language processing to create a virtual tumour repository for cancer research. Ace Chan, MSc, University of British Columbia Ace will present on changes in cancer-causing substance use during the COVID-19 pandemic among gender minority populations. Laura Grant, Alberta’s Tomorrow Project Laura will present on research opportunities and building a cancer trajectory biobank. Dr. Grace Shen-Tu, Alberta’s Tomorrow Project Dr. Shen-Tu will present on leveraging data and biosamples to unlock new cancer and chronic disease insights. Dr. Sara Nejatinamini, Alberta’s Tomorrow Project Dr. Nejatinamini will present on disparities in geospatial patterns of cervical cancer screening and associated risk factors . Dr. Jason Xu, Alberta’s Tomorrow Project Dr. Xu will present on the concordance between self-reported and administrative data on cervical cancer screening. Sabine El-Halabi, University of British Columbia Sabine will present on external validation and comparison of endometrial cancer risk populations. Melanie Matte, MPH, University of Calgary Melanie will present on insights from the development of a mobile phone app for cancer prevention research.

Data NB

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Our colleagues and administrative data holders in New Brunswick have rebranded to DataNB (formerly NB Institute for Research, Data and Training). “We have become synonymous with data – whether it’s training data analysts, holding provincial data or providing data access for research – so the name change just made sense,” said founding director Dr. Ted McDonald, a member of Health Data Research Network Canada’s Executive Committee. For the full announcement, please visit here. In 2024, a collaboration between Atlantic PATH and DataNB created a data linkage that made predicting chronic disease faster and simpler. “I am absolutely thrilled to see these linkages happen,” said Dr. Robin Urquhart, Atlantic PATH Scientific Director. “Atlantic PATH is an incredibly rich resource to understand the health of Atlantic Canadians and all of the different factors, like our biology, behaviours, and environments, that impact our health. This new linkage activity makes our resource more powerful, giving us access to different sources of data to answer complex health questions affecting all AtlanticCanadians.” “Not only is this historical, record-level data linkage activity, this work is crucial for Atlantic Canada, which has among the country’s highest rates of chronic disease and cancer,” said Dr. McDonald “Critically, it will enable researchers to focus on studies related to cancer and chronic disease that cannot be undertaken without linking the separate data sources. The data linkage has other important implications too, such as the potential to inform health policy and improve detection, prevention and treatment.” For additional information about data access, Atlantic PATH and DataNB, please reach out to us directly.

Participant Town Hall

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Join us for the upcoming Atlantic PATH and CanPath Participant Town Hall! On Monday, November 17th, you can learn about how we are “Preventing Cancer, Together: How your Data is Driving Discoveries.” The Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow’s Health (CanPath) is the largest population health study in Canada with more than 330,000 participants in seven regional cohorts, including Atlantic PATH, BC Generations Project, Alberta’s Tomorrow Project, Healthy Future Sask, Manitoba Tomorrow Project, Ontario Health Study, and CARTaGENE (Quebec). The data and biological samples provided by our participants are used to study cancer and chronic disease and support exciting scientific discoveries. Join us at the Town Hall to When: Monday, November 17, 2025 1-230pm Atlantic Time Where: Online Zoom Meeting Register here and submit your questions to be answered during our panel discussion. Please note, the webinar will be recorded and shared afterwards on YouTube.

World Mental Health Day

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Join us in recognizing World Mental Health Day. CanPath is Canada’s largest population health study and includes approximately 34,000 participants who were diagnosed with depression and more than 27,000 participants with anxiety. Data and biosamples provided by our participants are being used in critical mental health research. Alexandra Del Favero is a PhD student in the Department of Earth and Environmental Studies at Dalhousie University. Along with her supervisor, Dr. Kelvin Fong and using questionnaire data, toenail and saliva samples from Atlantic PATH, Alex is examining the effect of environmental factors on mental health in Nova Scotia. CanPath is one of 23 cohorts with 2.8 million participants included in the COVID Global Mental Health Consortium (CGMHC). Led by Dr. Jordan Smoller (Harvard University, Massachusetts General Hospital), this work is investigating pandemic-related mental health outcomes using individual-level harmonized longitudinal data. Data collected from CanPath COVID-19 questionnaires completed by participants from all regional cohorts are being used. Atlantic PATH are proud to lead this work on behalf of CanPath. Dr. Ashlyn Swift-Gallant (Department of Psychology, Memorial University) used data from Atlantic PATH to conduct research that found ovarian hormones contribute to the sex disparity in post-traumatic stress disorder. Drs. Gabriela Ilie, Rob Rutledge and Ellen Sweeney (Dalhousie University and Nova Scotia Health) used data from Atlantic PATH to investigate the association between prostate cancer diagnosis and mental health outcomes. Their work found increased rates of anxiety and depression among males with a history of prostate cancer; higher odds of depression among prostate cancer survivors who were treated with surgery; and higher rates of depression among prostate cancer survivors with a low household income compared to other forms of cancer and a high household income. These findings highlight the importance of a multidisciplinary effort to prioritize and deliver comprehensive mental health support to prostate cancer survivors. This work has helped to inform the groundbreaking Prostate Cancer Patient Empowerment Program (PC-PEP) and CancerPEP led by Drs. Ilie and Rutledge that have been implemented around the world. Atlantic PATH is one of the 18 cohort studies in the PSYchosocial factors and CAncer (PSY-CA) Consortium. Led by Dr. Joost Dekker from the Amsterdam University Medical Centre, this study investigated whether psychosocial factors, such as depression can predict the incidence of cancer. Multiple publications that include Atlantic PATH data can be found here. To find out about the most up-to-date mental health research and learn about data access, please visit our website.

Message from the Minister of Health – Breast Cancer Awareness Month

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From: Public Health Agency of Canada Statement from the Minister of Health, The Honourable Marjorie Michel P.C., M.P. October 8, 2025  | Ottawa, Ontario | Public Health Agency of Canada “Breast cancer remains one of the most common forms of cancer and the second leading cause of cancer-related death among women in Canada. One in eight women will receive a breast cancer diagnosis in their lifetime.  That’s why the Government of Canada works closely with partners and stakeholders to promote breast cancer awareness, prevention and screening for early detection. Empowering women to make informed decisions about their health can save lives. …Important work is happening to help us better understand breast cancer trends and risks to better respond to the diverse needs of women across Canada. For example, we have partnered with the Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow’s Health and Statistics Canada to accelerate breast cancer data analysis based on factors such as age, race and ethnicity. As well, experts are enhancing the OncoSim-Breast model that was developed by the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer and Statistics Canada, by including data on breast density and exploring the inclusion of race-based data to better predict breast cancer outcomes and inform decision making. Breast cancer touches the lives of so many every day. Nobody should have to face this disease alone. If you or a loved one is coping with a cancer diagnosis, there are many ways you can seek support. Visit the Canadian Cancer Society’s community services locator, which helps cancer patients, caregivers and health care providers find the services they need.”

IPAJC at EPICOH

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The International Partnership on Automatic Job Coding (IPAJC) will be represented at the 30th edition of the EPICOH Conference (Epidemiology in Occupational Health) from October 6-9, 2025 in Utrecht, the Netherlands. The IPAJC was established in 2021 with the partnership seeking to enable and promote efficient collection, processing, and accessibility of job information through improvement of automatic coding tools. Involvement and participation in IPAJC includes occupational epidemiologists and computer scientists engaged in examining the relationships between occupational exposures and health, and has since been expanded to include economists, statisticians and sociologists. Our Research Director, Dr. Ellen Sweeney is a member of the leadership team and represents Atlantic PATH and CanPath. The IPAJC will present at EPICOH: Calvin Ge, Peter Elias, Melissa C. Friesen, Olga Kononykhina, Stacey Marovich, Cheryl Peters, Daniel E. Russ, Malte Schierholz, Ellen Sweeney, Anil Adisesh. (2025). The International Partnership on Automatic Job Coding (IPAJC): A Hub for Automatic Job Coding and Industry Coding Tools and Expertise for Occupational Health Research. Poster Presentation. EPICOH. Utrecht, Netherlands. Additional member presentations include: Daniel E. Russ. (2025). Small Language Model Based NAICS 2022 CLassification of Industry from Products and Services: CLIPS. Oral Presentation. EPICOH. Utrecht, Netherlands. Calvin Ge. (2025). TNO-Auto Occupation Coder: A Novel, Large-Language Model Based Multilingual Automatic Coding Tool for Occupations. Oral Presentation. EPICOH. Utrecht, Netherlands. Pabitra Jossee. (2025). Using the SOCcer occupation auto-coding tool to help participants self-code their occupation in online questionnaires. Oral Presentation. EPICOH. Utrecht, Netherlands. IPAJC hosts bi-monthly online meetings to discuss topics and advances related to automatic classification of jobs, industries, skills and related information. See our upcoming meetings and connect on our LinkedIn page, or contact us for more information.

Atlantic PATH – Prostate Cancer Awareness Month

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To round up Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, we are highlighting some of the recent and ongoing work on prostate cancer conducted using Atlantic PATH data and biosamples. Flashback to 2023 and welcoming our youngest team member(!) and the Plaid for Dad tradition raising awareness about prostate cancer in Canada. We have ongoing research on prostate cancer exploring environmental exposure to arsenic and cancer risk using toxicological and machine learning methods. This research stream has received and benefitted from funding from Nova Scotia Health, the Beatrice Hunter Cancer Research Institute, Prostate Cancer Canada, the Canadian Cancer Society, and the New Frontiers in Research Fund. Watch this space for new findings and publications! Related publications to date include: Majouni, S., Kim, J.S., Sweeney, E., Keltie, E., Abidi, S. (2022). Applying Machine Learning to Arsenic Species and Metallomics Profiles of Toenails to Evaluate Associations of Environmental Arsenic with Incident Cancer Cases. Medical Informatics Europe Conference (MIE) Conference Proceedings. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics. Keltie, E., Hood, K., Cui, Y., Sweeney, E., Ilie, G., Adisesh, A., Dummer, T.J.B., Bharti, V., Kim, J.S. (2022). Arsenic speciation and metallomics profiling of human toenails as a biomarker to assess prostate cancer cases: Atlantic PATH cohort study. Frontiers in Public Health, 10.  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9301242/ Hood, K., Sweeney, E., Ilie, G., Keltie, E., Kim, J.S. (2023). Toenail arsenic species and metallome profiles associated with breast, cervical, prostate, and skin cancer prevalence in the Atlantic Partnership for Tomorrow’s Health cohort. Frontiers in Public Health, Environmental Health and Exposome.  https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1148283/full Smith, N., Keltie, E., Sweeney, E., Weerasinghe, S., MacPherson, K., Kim, J.S. (2022). Toenail speciation biomarkers in arsenic-releated disease: a feasibility study for investigating the association between arsenic expsosure and chronic disease. Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety, 232. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0147651322001099 The Langille Lab at Dalhousie University has an ongoing research stream on the microbiome. This work has included a focus on prostate cancer. Related publications include: Nearing, J., DeClercq, V., Langille, M. (2023). Investigating the Oral Microbiome in Retrospective and Prospective Cases of Prostate, Colon and Breast Cancer. Nature Biofilms and Microbiomes. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41522-023-00391-7. We have also conducted research on the mental health of prostate cancer survivors compared to those with no history of cancer and those with types of cancer. This work was supported by funding from the Beatrice Hunter Cancer Research Institute. Publications to date include: Ilie, G., Rutledge, R., Sweeney, E. (2020). Anxiety and depression symptoms in adult males in Atlantic Canada with or without a lifetime history of prostate cancer. Psycho-Oncology. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pon.5244 Ilie, G., Rutledge, R., Sweeney, E. (2021). An examination of the role of socioeconomic status in the relationship between depression and prostate cancer survivorship in a population-based sample of men from Atlantic Canada. Oncology, 99(4). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33486485/ Ilie, G., Rutledge, R., Sweeney, E. (2021). Post-Treatment Adverse Health Correlates among Prostate Cancer Survivors in a Sample of Men Residing in Atlantic Canada. Current Oncology, 28(4). https://www.mdpi.com/1718-7729/28/4/246