Category: News
Read what the media has been reporting on Atlantic PATH and the Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow Project.
CanPath Research Round-Up: Prostate Cancer Awareness
For September 2022’s #ProstateCancerAwarenessMonth, we shared insights across our social media channels from prostate cancer studies by CanPath researchers. Thanks to rich data from over 330,000 volunteer participants and researchers’ efforts, we can help change the future of prostate cancer! CanPath’s Research Round-Up highlights work on prostate cancer from Atlantic PATH and collaborators using our questionnaire data and toenail samples! https://canpath.ca/2022/11/prostate-cancer-awareness-month/
Prostate Cancer Awareness Month
This #ProstateCancerAwarenessMonth, we’re sharing insights from recent studies from researchers across Canada. Today, we’re sharing findings from Sheida Majouni, PhD candidate from Dalhousie University! In 2022, Majouni and colleagues applied machine learning to arsenic species and metal profiles of toenails from Atlantic PATH. They aimed to understand environmental metal’s potential to produce disease, specifically prostate cancer: https://bit.ly/3eVjUMK “Artificial intelligence has a unique potential to revolutionize population health,” says Dr. Syed Sibte Raza Abidi, Professor in the Faculty of Computer Science at Dalhousie University. “By discovering environmental risk factors’ influence on chronic disease risk with risk prediction models, it is a pivotal tool for mitigating the risk of chronic disease onset.” This work is being expanded with the support of a New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF) Exploration grant. Team members include Dr. Syed Sibte Raza Abidi (Nominated Principal Investigator), Dr. Jong Sung Kim (Co-Principal Investigator), Dr. Ellen Sweeney (Co-Investigator), Dr. Gabriela Ilie (Co-Investigator), Dr. Trevor Dummer (Co-Investigator), Dr. Taehyun Roh (Collaborator), Dr. Nathalie Saint-Jacques (Collaborator), and Jason Hicks (Collaborator). Watch this space for future findings!
Prostate Cancer Awareness Month
This #ProstateCancerAwarenessMonth, we’re sharing insights from recent studies from researchers across Canada. Today, we’re sharing findings from Gabriela Ilie, PhD, associate professor at Dalhousie University and DMRF Endowed Scientist in Cancer Quality of Life Research! In 2019, Dr. Gabriela Ilie, Dr. Rob Rutledge and Dr. Ellen Sweeney examined the association between depression and anxiety and prostate cancer. From 6,585 Atlantic PATH participants, they found that prostate cancer survivors had greater odds of screening positive for anxiety or depression compared to those with a history of other forms of cancer. The findings highlight the importance of a multidisciplinary effort to prioritize and deliver comprehensive mental health support to PCa survivors: https://bit.ly/3Dqe6oH Come 2021, they continued their work in the area of depression, anxiety and prostate cancer, further finding that the association is moderated by household income: https://bit.ly/3B9D0X3 They most recently found that prostate cancer survivors who were treated with surgery had 7.55 statistically significantly higher odds of screening positive for current depression compared to those who had surgery for other types of cancer: https://bit.ly/3S4EQPT “This pivotal research made possible by Atlantic PATH and its collaborators highlights the epidemic of mental distress among prostate cancer survivors throughout Atlantic Canada, now corroborated worldwide. This research became the impetus for development of the PC-PEP program (https://pcpep.org/) which is now helping survivors throughout Canada and beyond,” says Dr. Ilie.
New Publication
Congratulations to Majouni et al. on the new publication, “Applying Machine Learning to Arsenic Species and Metallomics Profiles of Toenails to Evaluate Associations of Environmental Arsenic with Incident Cancer Cases.” This research involves analyzing toenail samples from Atlantic PATH, as well as machine learning algorithms to arsenic species and metallomics profiles to investigate the complex association between environmental arsenic as a carcinogen and prostate cancer. https://ebooks.iospress.nl/doi/10.3233/SHTI220385
Funding News
Congratulations to Dr. Samina Abidi, Dr. Raza Abidi, Dr. Ellen Sweeney and team on their successful CIHR Catalyst grant, “Digital Health and Artificial Intelligence based Platform for Early Chronic Disease Risk Assessment and Prediction to Improve Population Health.” This project will leverage digital health/e-health and artificial intelligence technologies to develop a Personalized Risk Investigation, Stratification and Mitigation (PRISM) platform to assess chronic disease risk. “
New Publication
We’re excited to announce a new publication in Frontiers in Public Health (Environmental Health and Exposome). This article uses toenail samples to assess arsenic speciation and metallomics to assess prostate cancer cases in the Atlantic PATH population. This research was supported with funding from the Canadian Cancer Society/Prostate Cancer Canada, New Brunswick Health Research Foundation, Nova Scotia Health Authority, and Beatrice Hunter Cancer Research Institute. Our findings indicate that toenails are a biomarker for altered arsenic speciation in prostate cancer cases and may have greater utility than urine in this context. Open Access: https://bit.ly/3OOprSd
New Publication
We’re pleased to share a new publication that considers substituting sedentary behaviour with physical activity among participants with a history of cancer. Congratulations to Dr. Cindy Forbes and team! Open Access: https://bit.ly/3MQvqEp
Five Years of Team PATH and Plaid for Dad
The Atlantic PATH team is always happy to support the Canadian Cancer Society’s Plaid for Dad event which raises awareness about prostate cancer and supports prostate cancer research in Canada. There were two years when we could be together for Plaid for Dad in the office and with our office dog Flash. We’re happy to be able to continue participating while we work from home during COVID-19 the past few years, safely social distancing! You can read more about the Plaid for Dad campaign here: https://bit.ly/3QrMbZC
Congratulations to Dr. Robin Urquhart and the CanPath team across the country!
Funded by the Canadian Cancer Society Data Transformation Grant, this work will connect cancer registry and administrative health data with CanPath data creating a unified resource for cancer research in Canada. https://bit.ly/3OojlZ2 Urquhart R, Awadalla P, Bhatti P, Dummer T, Gravel S, Vena J, Alvi R, Broet P, Kendell C, Kirsh V, Lettre G, Skead K, Sweeney E, Turner D. Harnessing the power of linked data to understand cancer and its outcomes: a national linkage project. March 2022-March 2023, CCS Data Transformation Grant. Canada has a wealth of health care and health research data, but numerous barriers prevent efficient sharing of these datasets between provinces. This, combined with further difficulties with linking datasets together, causes major limitations in using the data productively to improve the health of Canadians. With support from the Canadian Cancer Society, Dr Urquhart will lead a team to connect several cancer registry and administrative health data repositories, creating a unified resource for cancer research in Canada. One of the datasets, CanPath, contains data on 1 in 100 Canadians, including lifestyle, family histories, genetics and environment and this, combined with other datasets, will be analysed to understand the causes of cancer and what happens to people with cancer in the short- and long-term. The researchers will also be able to ask important questions about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people who have been diagnosed with cancer during this time. Linking these huge datasets will provide a very important resource for cancer research in Canada.