CanPath Representation at the Canadian Society for Epidemiology and Biostatistics Conference

Posted on June 26, 2023June 27, 2023 by pathwp

We’re so glad to have representation from Atlantic PATH, CARTaGENE, Manitoba Tomorrow Project, Ontario Health Study, and CanPath at the Canadian Society for Epidemiology and Biostatistics Conference in Halifax this week! CanPath and the regional cohorts are well represented in the following sessions: Monday, June 26, 2023 Workshop 1 – Mentorship for Junior Faculty and Funding Opportunities: How to Break into the Game as a Junior Faculty Member [Dr. Vikki Ho, Scientific Co-Director, CARTaGENE] Workshop 3 – Data Repositories in Canada: Overview and Data Access 101 [Dr. Robin Urquhart, Scientific Director, Atlantic PATH] Tuesday, June 27, 2023 Concurrent Sessions B5: Lifecourse and Chronic Disease Epidemiology – Leveraging population health cohorts to identify cancer biomarkers in blood up to seven years prior to diagnosis Presenter: Nicholas Chang, PhD candidate, OICR Poster Session The Impact of Alcohol Consumption and Single Nucleode Polymorphisms on the High Rates of Colorectal Cancer in Atlantic Canada Presenter: Carlee Feinstein, Research Assistant, St. FX Authors: Carlee A Feinstein, Derrick G Lee, Allison Walsh, Tiffany S Bondo The Manitoba Tomorrow Project: A Canadian Cohort Presented by: Dr. Travis Hrubeniuk, Project Lead, Manitoba Tomorrow Project Authors: Travis Hrubeniuk, Sachin Katyal, Donna Turner Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow’s Health (CanPath): Celebrang Compleng the Provincial Map and Cross-Province Data Linkage Presented by: Dr. John McLaughlin, Executive Director, CanPath Authors: John McLaughlin, Riaz Alvi, Philip Awadalla, Parveen Bhatti, Trevor Dummer, Jason Hicks, Vikki Ho, Grace Shen-Tu, Kimberly Skead, Ellen Sweeney, Donna Turner, Robin Urquhart, Jennifer Vena Examining the impact of inflammatory bowel disease on colorectal cancer risk in Atlantic Canada Presented by: Livia Clarke, Research Assistant, Dalhousie Medical School / St. FX Authors: Livia Clarke, Derrick Lee, Ellen Sweeney The Impact of Abnormal Sleep and Circadian Disruption on Atlantic Canada’s High Rate of Colorectal Cancer Presented by: Alison Walsh, Research Assistant, St. FX Authors: Alison J Walsh, Carlee A Feinstein, Tiffany S Bondoc, Megan K MacGillivray, Derrick G Lee The Ontario Health Study (OHS) Presented by: Sarah Salih, Data Analyst, Ontario Health Study Authors: Victoria Kirsh, Kimberly Skead, Kelly McDonald, Nancy Kreiger, Julian Lile, Karen Menard, John McLaughlin, Sutapa Mukherjee, Lyle Palmer, Vivek Goel, Mark Purdue, Sarah Salih, Philip Awadalla Smoking, aberrant DNA methylaon of the F2RL3 and AHRR genes, and lung cancer risk Presented by: Vikki Ho, Scientific Co-Director, CARTaGENE Authors: Alice Nguyen, Anita Koushiki, Laura Pelland-St. Pierre, Michael Pham, Romain Pasquet, Sherryl Tauylor, Delphine Bosson-Rieutort, Vikki Ho The influence of occupaonal risk factors on DNA methylaon in the AHRR and F2RL3 genes Presented by: Laura Pelland-St-Pierre Authors: Michael Pham, Laura Pelland-St-Pierre, Alice Nguyen, Romain Pasquet, Sherryl Taylor, Delphine Bosson-Rieutort, Anita Koushik, Vikki Ho Wednesday, June 28, 2023 Concurrent Session C5: Cancer Epidemiology II – Exploring Environmental Exposure to Arsenic and Cancer Risk in the Atlantic PATH Cohort using Toxicological and Machine Learning Methods Presenter: Dr. Ellen Sweeney, Research Director, Atlantic PATH Please feel free to contact Atlantic PATH, CanPath or any of the regional cohorts to learn more about these projects!

CanPath Access Office Hours

Posted on June 22, 2023 by pathwp

The CanPath Access Office invites researchers to an Office Hours session. This virtual series provides researchers with an opportunity to ask questions about CanPath data and biosamples and the access process. Members of the Access Office will be available to answer questions and demonstrate how to navigate the CanPath Portal and online application. Registration: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYsc-ugqD8sH9QfdxDq2NPHtBttkD17yCz1#/registration

#PlaidForDad2023

Posted on June 16, 2023June 16, 2023 by pathwp

#PlaidForDad2023 — Prostate Cancer Awareness and Research Atlantic PATH welcomes our youngest team member(!) and continues 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. Related publications to date include: Keltie, E., Hood, K., Cui, Y., Sweeney, E., Ilie, G., Adishesh, 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 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

Toenail arsenic species and metallome profiles associated with breast, cervical, prostate, and skin cancer prevalence in the Atlantic Partnership for Tomorrow’s Health cohort

Posted on June 15, 2023June 15, 2023 by pathwp

Authors: Kalli Hood, Ellen Sweeney, Gabriela Ilie, Erin Keltie, Jong Sung Kim Journal: Frontiers in Public Health, Sec. Environmental Health and Exposome Abstract: Introduction: Chronic exposure to arsenic through drinking water has been linked to several cancers. The metabolism of arsenic is thought to play a key role in arsenic-related carcinogenesis as metabolites of varying toxicity are produced and either stored in or excreted from the body. Atlantic Canada has the highest age-standardized incidence rates of all cancers in the country. This may be due to its high levels of environmental arsenic and the prevalence of unregulated private wells for water consumption. Here, we aimed to characterize the profiles of arsenic species and metallome in the toenails of four cancer groups, compare them to healthy participants (N = 338), and assess potential associations between the profiles with cancer prevalence. Methods: This study employed a case–control design. Toenail samples and questionnaire data from cases (breast, cervical, prostate, and skin cancers) and controls were sourced from the Atlantic Partnership for Tomorrow’s Health (PATH) cohort study. The levels of arsenic species were measured using Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) paired with High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) and total concentrations of metallome (23 metals) were determined by ICP-MS separately. Multivariate analyses were conducted to compare cases with controls within each cancer group. Results: Arsenic speciation profiles varied by cancer type and were significantly different between cases and controls in the breast (p = 0.0330), cervical (p = 0.0228), and skin (p = 0.0228) cancer groups. In addition, the profiles of metallome (nine metals) were significantly differentiated in the prostate (p = 0.0244) and skin (p = 0.0321) cancer groups, with higher zinc concentrations among cases compared to controls. Conclusion: History of cancer diagnosis was associated with specific profiles of arsenic species and metallome. Our results indicate that arsenic methylation and zinc levels, as measured in toenails, may be an important biomarker for cancer prevalence. Further research is needed to use toenails as a prognostic measure of arsenic-and other metal-induced cancer. doi: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1148283

New Toxicology Publication

Posted on June 15, 2023June 15, 2023 by pathwp

Congratulations to Kalli Hood and team on their new publication in Frontiers in Public Health! Kalli’s Master’s research found an association between a history of cancer and arsenic speciation/metallome exposure in the Atlantic PATH cohort. This work is part of our larger focus on environment and cancer, and establishing toenails as an important biomarker representing ~18 months of exposure. Kalli is now working on her PhD focused on drinking water quality in the Department of Civil and Resource Engineering at Dalhousie University.