Webinar: Building the Canadian Cancer Society within CanPath

Join us on March 30th (1-2pm AST/12-1pm EST) for the CanPath webinar, “Building the Canadian Cancer Society within CanPath.” Registration: http://bit.ly/3JdYhCR About the webinar: Streams of big data are finally coming together to help us understand cancer and predict it earlier. CanPath is building the Canadian Cancer Study to advance research and discovery for cancer, the leading cause of death in Canada. As the first program to bring together national population health cohort resources with administrative-level data and provincial cancer registry data in one central location, CanPath is reducing barriers and increasing data accessibility to advance Canadian cancer research. Researchers will be able to access a ready-made dataset that would otherwise take them a year or more to bring together since they would have to compile it themselves by contacting each provincial data holder for the same information. The Canadian Cancer Study is ultimately paving the path to understanding the needs of people with cancer by leveraging the full potential of large data sources. Join the webinar to learn about progress towards building the Canadian Cancer Study, and how CanPath data and biologics, coupled with linked clinical outcomes can be used to identify biological signatures associated with increased cancer risk and, subsequently, develop novel early diagnostic tools able to identify cancer years prior to clinical onset. About the presenter: Our colleague, Kimberly Skead is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Molecular Genetics at the University of Toronto and the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research where she is developing tools to identify patients at risk of cancer and heart disease. She completed a BSc at Trinity College in the University of Toronto where she studied Global Health and Genome Biology. Kimberly is the National Scientific Coordinator of the Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow’s Health, the Program Coordinator for the Canadian Data Integration Centre and the co-founder and co-leader of the Ontario Rising Stars in Cancer Research Network. She is the recipient of the Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Masters and Doctoral Scholarships from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, and the Cecil Yip Doctoral Research Award.  

New Research Report — Current Management and Health Care use for People with Osteoarthritis

Congratulations to Dr. Cheryl Kozey and team on their completed study and new report, Current Management and Health Care Use for People with Osteoarthritis. The team used existing data from Atlantic PATH to examine self-reported characteristics of people living with and without osteoarthritis in all three Maritime Provinces (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island).  The Atlantic PATH data for Nova Scotians was then linked to administrative data, accessed through Health Data Nova Scotia, in order to identify trends in health care use by Nova Scotians with and without osteoarthritis. A copy of the summary report can be found here: https://mssu.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/OA-Maritimes-Summary-Report_2023-02-10.pdf An infographic characterizing the the participants and findings can be found here: https://mssu.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/OA-Maritimes-Infographic.pdf

Webinar: Healthy Future Sask: From Idea to Reality

Webinar: Healthy Future Sask: From Idea to Reality About the webinar: In 2019, the Saskatchewan Cancer Agency was approached to expand CanPath into the province of Saskatchewan. After four years of planning, testing, an internal pilot, and guidance from established cohorts, Healthy Future Sask officially launched on February 1, 2023.  This webinar will tell the story and present the challenges and opportunities of launching a provincial research platform. Healthy Future Sask will be a valuable resource adding approximately 7,000 participants to the CanPath cohort. Date:February 28, 2023 Time:12:00 pm to 1:00 pm EST Registration Details: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_HETZfTduTlCRHonSPhvfkQ

Healthy Future Sask Launch!!

Congratulations to our colleagues at Healthy Future Sask!! With the addition of Healthy Futures Sask, CanPath is represented by regional cohorts in all ten provinces. CanPath is the largest population health cohort study in the country with more than 330,000 participants. Healthy Future Sask will be recruiting 7,000 provincial participants between the ages of 30-74. “Adding Saskatchewan to this major research project is an opportunity to be part of creating a legacy with wide-ranging impacts for generations to come,” said Riaz Alvi, Scientific Director for Healthy Future Sask and Director of Epidemiology for the Saskatchewan Cancer Agency. “The information within our cells can be a valuable asset towards scientific and global research while enhancing the research already being done and supported at the Saskatchewan Cancer Agency. In addition, this study will allow researchers to use more fulsome data to understand the risks for chronic disease, including cancer.” For additional details, please visit: https://canpath.ca/2023/02/healthy-future-sask-public-launch/

Nearing PhD Defense

Congratulations to Jacob Nearing who successfully defended his PhD in Microbiology and Immunology at Dalhousie University!! Supervised by Dr. Morgan Langille, Jacob used biosamples from Atlantic PATH and Alberta’s Tomorrow Project in his work, “Identification of Robust Biomarkers Using Microbiome DNA Sequencing with a Focus on the Oral Microbiome and Cancer Associations.” Abstract The human microbiome can be defined as the community of microbes that live within and on the human body. Modern day microbiome research relies on the use of high throughput deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sequencing to characterize and identify microbes and community structures associated with human disease. Indeed, the human microbiome has been proposed as a useful source of biomarkers for numerous human health conditions including cancer. Yet often, microbial biomarkers identified through DNA sequencing efforts are not reproducible between studies. Herein, I present my work on examining computation choices during microbiome experiments and applying this knowledge to identify novel associations with the salivary microbiome and breast, prostate, and colon cancer. Typical DNA sequenced based surveys of microbiomes, requires numerous choices to be made at each step of the experimental protocol. Often theses choices are unclear with no current gold standard within the field. Yet, these methods are used interchangeable within the literature without regard for how that choice might impact the biological conclusions that researchers find. To help address this issue I examined how choices made during two computational steps for processing DNA sequencing data impacted the biological conclusions drawn. In doing so I highlighted critical differences that can be attributed to bioinformatic tool choice and suggest potential solutions for these issues in the future. Using information from the above chapters, the second half of this thesis represents analysis done on salivary samples from a large population cohort to both characterized salivary microbiome variation and how that variation is associated with breast, prostate, and colon cancer. Within these chapters we show that several daily life factors are significantly associated with salivary microbiome composition, yet they only explain a small amount of total community variance. We also show that the salivary microbiome contains little signal in cases of breast and prostate cancer. Contrastingly our work did show potential salivary microbiome associations within cases of colon cancer. These findings show the potential for future diagnostic research into the relation between the oral microbiome and colon cancer development. Jacob’s publications and additional information about his research can be found here. Congratulations, Dr. Nearing!! We wish you all the best in the future and look forward to following your career.  

Canadian Cancer Society Accelerator Grants

The Canadian Cancer Society’s Accelerator grants seek to accelerate the application of high-quality evidence addressing unmet, cancer-related needs (bit.ly/3B9DTj5). Congratulations to Dr. Robin Urquhart, Scientific Director of Atlantic PATH and Dr. Trevor Dummer, National Scientific Co-Director of CanPath on their successful Accelerator grants! Dr. Urquhart’s work will focus on adapting and implementing cancer patient pathways in Nova Scotia. The overarching aim is to implement and test evidence-based Cancer Patient Pathways as a coordinated approach to referral and early diagnosis is needed t oreduce delays and improve patient outcomes. Dr. Dummer’s work will focus on preventing cancer in the gender minority populations. While existing cancer prevention strategies address the needs of the majority population quite well, alternate strategies that account for the needs of marginalized communities who are often at an increased risk of cancer are lacking. This work will synthesize existing practice and is related to Dr. Dummer’s current CanPath project, “Primary Prevention of Cancer-Causing Substance Use in Gender Minority People of Canada” (https://canpath.ca/project/dummer-chan-2022/).

2022 Women Leaders in Digital Health

Congratulations to our colleague, Dr. Samina Abidi who has been selected as one of nine Women Leaders in Digital Health 2022 by Digital Health Canada. Launched in 2017, this award recognizes visionaries who are harnessing the power of IT to transform Canadian health and healthcare. Dr. Abidi is an Associate Professor in the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine at Dalhousie University. She holds an MD, MSc in Information Technology and PhD in Health Informatics. Dr. Abidi is the co-Director of the NICHE (kNowledge Intensive Computing for Healthcare Enterprises) research group and has been involved with digital health academics, innovation, mentorship and advocacy for over 10 years. Her research interests span artificial intelligence, digital health and knowledge management. “… [G]iven the unique challenges and demands faced by the Canadian health system, we need not just dynamic clinical leaders but also a diversified community of thinkers and problem solvers who bring innovative solutions to address the gaps within the Canadian health system. In this regard, Dr. Abidi possesses excellent leadership, innovation, forward-thinking and interpersonal skills, coupled with sound academic acumen and experience that is helping to improve the Canadian health system.” https://digitalhealthcanada.com/news/2022-women-leader-samina-r-abidi/        

Prostate Cancer Awareness Month Logo

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!