Join Maritime SPOR SUPPORT Unit for an upcoming webinar on April 25th at 12pmAST for an overview of an overview of the data services and data available at Health Data Nova Scotia and share information about the anticipated CLSA and Atlantic PATH data!! Registration: https://mssu.ca/event/lunch-and-learn-data-services-at-health-data-nova-scotia/
Ethan Ring is a third year Masters student in the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology at Dalhousie University. His research interests include environmental carcinogens and their role in cancer development. Ethan will be presenting a poster at the Canadian Cancer Research Conference from his graduate work on the association between potential asbestos exposure and breast cancer risk in Atlantic Canada. This work utilized baseline and follow-up data from 8,160 female Atlantic PATH participants and is part of a larger study led by Dr. Cindy Feng on Predictive Modeling and Geographical Analysis of Cancer Incidence in the Atlantic Region. Ethan’s Master’s supervisor is Dr. Cindy Feng, Associate Professor, Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, Dalhousie University, Affiliate Scientist (Research), Nova Scotia Health, and Affiliate Scientist, Beatrice Hunter Cancer Research Institute. Additional committee members include Dr. Leah Cahill, Dr. Nathalie St-Jacques, Dr. Ellen Sweeney, and Dr. Robin Urquhart. Posters will be up for the duration of the conference and during viewing sessions on Sunday, November 12th from 12-1:30pm AST and Monday, November 13th from 1:10-2:40pm AST.
Dr. Philip Awadalla, Scientific Director of CanPath, and Patient Partner/Atlantic PATH participant, Pauline McIntyre, will chair a panel at the Canadian Cancer Research Conference, “CanPath: Canada’s Largest Population Laboratory for Cancer Research” on Monday, November 13th at 11:40 AST. Presenters include Dr. Dylan O’Sullivan, Dr. Samina Abidi, Dr. Sara Nejatinamini, and Dr. Vikki Ho. Dr. Dylan O’Sullivan is a Research Scientist at Alberta Health Services and an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Cumming School of Medicine, Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of Calgary. His research interests include reducing the cancer burden across the full cancer control continuum (prevention, screening, and outcomes) with the use of existing methods and the development of novel data analytics. Dr. O’Sullivan will be presenting on the risk factors for early-onset colorectal cancer using CanPath data. Dr. Samina Abidi is an Associate Professor in the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology at the Faculty of Medicine at Dalhousie University and is cross appointed in the Faculty of Computer Science. Dr. Abidi has a unique skill set where she is a clinician with an expertise in health informatics. Her research interests include health knowledge integration, modelling and computerization, patient-centred care, chronic disease self-management and behaviour modification, clinical guidelines based clinical decision support and care planning, ambient assistant living, data visualizations, health IT evaluation. Dr. Abidi will be presenting on a digital health and artificial based public health platform for cancer risk prediction using data from Atlantic PATH. Dr. Sara Nejatinamini is a Research Associate at Alberta’s Tomorrow Project. She received her PhD degree in Nutrition and Metabolism from the University of Alberta. Prior to joining the ATP, she undertook postdoctoral training at the University of Calgary with a focus on health inequities. Dr. Nejatinamini’s research interests include public health, nutrition and cancer. Her research focuses on the role of modifiable lifestyle factors on cancer and other chronic disease risk. She applies epidemiological and implementation science methods and principles in her research to identify factors to prevent cancer and other chronic diseases and inform health interventions. Dr. Nejatinamini will be presenting on changes in breast and cervical cancer screening during the COVID-19 pandemic using data from Alberta’s Tomorrow Project. Dr. Vikki Ho is the co-Scientific Director of CARTaGENE and holds the Chair in Sex and Gender Sciences in Cancer Research from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine in the School of Public Health (ESPUM) at the University of Montreal and a Researcher at the affiliated Hospital Research Centre (CRCHUM). Dr. Ho’s research interests focus on the intersection of environmental, lifestyle, occupational, and individual susceptibility factors in cancer etiology. Dr. Ho will be presenting on CARTaGENE’s research platform and the wide array of data sources for cancer prevention research, including environmental factors and biomarkers. She will specifically focus on occupational exposures and lung cancer biomarkers, and occupational exposures to endocrine disrupting chemicals and colorectal cancer risk. Dr. Ho will also present a poster on the CARTaGENE cohort. Posters will be up for the duration of the conference and during viewing sessions on Sunday, November 12th from 12-1:30pm AST and Monday, November 13th from 1:10-2:40pm AST.
Atlantic PATH will be well represented at the Canadian Cancer Research Conference. Yunsong Cui, MSc, is the Data Analyst at Atlantic PATH, Faculty of Medicine, Dalhousie University. He performs statistical analyses of health outcomes using data from Atlantic PATH, patient registries and administrative health databases. His primary research interests include physical activity, lifestyle, diet, and environmental factors related to cancer and comorbidities. His work at Atlantic PATH involves projects on cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, cardiovascular disease, environmental exposures, and polypharmacy. Yunsong will be presenting a poster on depression, anxiety and the risk of cancer from the Psychosocial Factors and Cancer Incidence (PSY-CA) consortium, which includes data from 18 longitudinal cohorts in the Netherlands, United Kingdom and Canada, including Atlantic PATH, CARTaGENE (Quebec) and the Ontario Health Study (N=617,355). Posters will be up for the duration of the conference and during viewing sessions on Sunday, November 12th from 12-1:30pm AST and Monday, November 13th from 1:10-2:40pm AST. Yunsong will also present on the PSY-CA study in the lightning session in a panel on Cancer Risk and Primary Prevention on Tuesday, November 14 at 10:40am AST. Dr. Ellen Sweeney is the Research Director at Atlantic PATH, Faculty of Medicine, Dalhousie University; Associate Member, Beatrice Hunter Cancer Research Institute; Affiliate Scientist, Nova Scotia Health; Scholar, Healthy Populations Institute, Dalhousie University; and Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Graduate Studies, Dalhousie University. Dr. Sweeney’s background is in environmental health and breast cancer. She is the primary contact for data access and leads the environmental and occupational health research streams at Atlantic PATH. Dr. Sweeney will present a poster on exploring environmental exposure to arsenic and cancer risk in Atlantic PATH using toxicological and machine learning methods, as well as one on the mental health status of prostate cancer survivors in the Atlantic PATH cohort. Posters will be up for the duration of the conference and during viewing sessions on Sunday, November 12th from 12-1:30pm AST and Monday, November 13th from 1:10-2:40pm AST. Dr. Sweeney will also present the mental health and prostate cancer study in the lightning session in a panel on Cancer Survivorship on Sunday, November 12th at 1:30pm.
Dr. Robin Urquhart is the co-chair of the Scientific Program Committee at the Canadian Cancer Research Conference. She is also the Scientific Director of Atlantic PATH; Canadian Cancer Society (Nova Scotia Division) Endowed Chair in Population Cancer Research; Associate Professor, Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, Dalhousie University; Senior Scientist, Beatrice Hunter Cancer Research Institute; and Affiliate Scientist, Nova Scotia Health. Dr. Urquhart’s research interests include access to and quality of cancer care, patient and family outcomes and experiences, and how to more effectively move research evidence into clinical practice and healthcare policy. During the conference, Dr. Urquhart can be found: At the Opening Remarks (Sunday, November 12th, 9am AST) Chairing a session on the Crises Affecting Healthcare (Monday, November 13th at 11:40am AST) At the Patient Engagement Workshop (Monday, November 13th at 4:40pm AST) Chairing a session on environment and cancer with Patient Partner, Dr. Don Desserud (Tuesday, November 14th at 11:40am AST).
Dr. Derrick Lee, Assistant Professor at St. FX University recently gave an excellent presentation on “How Environment and Genes Impact Colorectal Cancer Risk in Atlantic Canada” to the Nova Scotian Institute of Science. “Like many Atlantic Canadians, cancer has affected me directly and indirectly, and there are many factors that influence individual risk of cancer. Many of us are familiar with the risks associated with smoking, as well as the risk when there is a family history of the disease, and yet none of these factors are unique to Atlantic Canada. In today’s talk, I’m going to describe one of my projects that takes aim at explaining why the risk of colorectal cancer.” Dr. Derrick Lee, Saint Francis Xavier University. Dr. Lee’s research on environment and gene interactions in colorectal cancer risk uses data and biological samples from Atlantic PATH and the BC Generations Project. You can find the presentation on the Nova Scotian Institute of Science’s YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeU3nQntpnE.
October 10th is World Mental Health Day and Atlantic PATH is pleased to be involved in multiple studies examining mental health and well-being. COVID Global Mental Health Consortium The COVID Global Mental Health Consortium was recently funded and includes 23 global cohorts representing 2.8 million participants. It will produce a global evaluation of pandemic-related mental health outcomes using individual-level harmonized longitudinal data. Research will begin this fall and we look forward to participating and contributing to this important work. Depression, Anxiety and Risk of Cancer Depression and anxiety have long been thought to be related to an increased cancer risk. The Psychosocial Factors and Cancer Incidence (PSY-CA) consortium is led from the Netherlands and includes Atlantic PATH, CARTaGENE (Quebec) and the Ontario Health Study. This study found that mental health was not related to an increased risk of cancer. Shift Work & Mental Health The relationship between mental health and shift work was evaluated among Atlantic PATH participants. Shift workers reported higher levels of each of the mental health domains compared to non-shift workers. Shift workers were more likely to have increased rates of depression and poor self-rated health, as well as depressive and anxiety symptom scores compared to non-shift workers. As a result, shift workers may be at increased risk of comorbidity, poor quality of life, missed work, and early retirement. Physical Activity and Self-Rated Health The population of Atlantic Canada is aging rapidly and has among the highest rates of chronic disease in the country. This study examined the association between physical activity and self-rated health among Atlantic PATH participants. The results suggest that physical activity is associated with and may help to improve perceived health status of individuals with one or more chronic conditions. The findings support literature suggesting that physical activity can be beneficial for adults as they age with chronic disease. Anxiety, Depression and Prostate Cancer Prostate cancer is the most prevalent form of cancer among males in Canada, and has one of the most favorable survival rates among all cancers. The incidence rates are expected to remain high with an aging population and an increase in asymptomatic detection. Prostate cancer survivors had higher odds of anxiety or depression symptoms compared to those with no history of cancer or a history of any other type of cancer. Prostate cancer survivors with a low household income had a higher rate of depression compared to those with a history of another type of cancer and a high household income. Prostate cancer survivors who were treated with surgery had a higher odds of depression symptoms compared to those with a history of other types of cancer. Increased rates of anxiety and depression among males with a history of prostate cancer highlights the need for mental health screening among prostate cancer survivors. The findings highlight the importance of a multidisciplinary effort to prioritize and deliver comprehensive mental health support throughout the prostate cancer journey.
We are pleased to share that the first results from the Psychosocial Factors and Cancer Incidence (PSY-CA) consortium have been published in Cancer. Led from the Netherlands by Dr. Lonneke van Tuijl and Dr. Joost Dekker, this study includes 18 cohorts with more than 300,000 participants including Atlantic PATH, the Ontario Health Study and CARTaGENE from CanPath. Our local team members include Mr. Yunsong Cui (Atlantic PATH) who completed all local analyses, Dr. Ellen Sweeney (Atlantic PATH) and Dr. Melanie Keats (Dalhousie University). Depression and anxiety have long been hypothesized to be related to an increased cancer risk, but, to date, findings are inconclusive. Individual participant data meta-analyses were performed within the PSY-CA consortium to assess the associations between depression, anxiety, and the incidence of various cancer types (overall, breast, lung, prostate, colorectal, alcohol-related, and smoking-related cancers). Findings from the study indicate that depression and anxiety are not related to increased risk for most cancer outcomes, except for lung and smoking-related cancers. This study shows that key covariates are likely to explain the relationship between depression, anxiety, and lung and smoking-related cancers. Link to publication: https://acsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cncr.34853 Link to Neuroscience News article: https://neurosciencenews.com/depression-anxiety-cancer-23769/
Atlantic PATH participants were invited to participate in the SunFit study led by Dr. Ivan Litvinov at McGill University. A new publication focuses on assessing skin cancer risk factors, sun safety behaviours and melanoma concern in Atlantic Canada. Melanoma skin cancer can largely be prevented through education, sun protection, screening, and public health campaigns. However, incidence rates have been increasing and the highest age-standardized incidence rates in Canada found in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island (27.66 and 30.94 cases per 100,000, respectively). In contrast, Newfoundland and Labrador and New Brunswick have rates below or comparable to the Canadian average (16.63 and 19.99 per 100,000, respectively). The SunFit study found that participants in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island had higher overall rates of sun exposure, as well as the greatest percentage of the skin type with a predisposition to burn. The findings of the study suggest that increased sun exposure, rather than lack of awareness or use of sun protection, may be driving the higher rates of melanoma in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island compared to Newfoundland and Labrador. The Sun Fit project continues to expand this work to other Canadian regions.
The CanPath team was well represented at the Canadian Society for Epidemiology & Biostatistics (CSEB) Conference in Halifax on June 26-28, 2023. We had representatives from the CanPath National Coordinating Centre, Atlantic PATH, CARTaGENE, the Manitoba Tomorrow Project, and the Ontario Health Study that showcased the groundbreaking research and resources available related to epidemiology and biostatistics within CanPath and the regional cohorts. Throughout the conference, CanPath and the regional cohorts were well-represented in various sessions and discussions, particularly regarding data linkage. Some notable presentations included: ? Dr. Robin Urquhart, Scientific Director of Atlantic PATH, co-presented a workshop on data repositories in Canada ? Dr. Ellen Sweeney, Research Director of Atlantic PATH, presented at a concurrent session about research at Atlantic PATH exploring environmental exposure to arsenic and cancer risk using toxicological and machine-learning methods ? Dr. Vikki Ho, co-Scientific Director of CARTaGENE, co-presented a workshop on mentorship for junior faculty and funding opportunities ? Nicholas Cheng, PhD candidate at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, presented at a concurrent session about his research on leveraging population health cohorts to identify cancer biomarkers in blood up to seven years before diagnosis ? Poster sessions featured CanPath, the Manitoba Tomorrow Project, the Ontario Health Study, CARTaGENE, and more, showcasing the exceptional research happening at the regional level and how they can support epidemiological and biostatistical projects. Please connect with us to learn more about these projects. We are proud to contribute to advancing this critical field and look forward to continuing our efforts to drive positive health outcomes for all. #CSEBConference2023 #Epidemiology #Biostatistics #EveryoneCounts #HealthResearch #Cohort #PopulationHealth