Tag: Atlantic PATH

CIHR Team Grants: Bringing Biology to Cancer Prevention

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Team Grants — Bringing Biology to Cancer Prevention  This opportunity is led by the CIHR Institute of Cancer Research (CIHR-ICR) in collaboration with the CIHR Institutes of: Aging (CIHR-IA), Gender and Health (CIHR-IGH), Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes (CIHR-INMD), Population and Public Health (CIHR-IPPH), and in partnership with the BioCanRx, Canadian Cancer Society (CCS), Cancer Research Society (CRS), Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED) – Adopting Sustainable Partnerships for Innovative Research Ecosystem (ASPIRE), and the Terry Fox Research Institute (TFRI). This funding opportunity aims to unite interdisciplinary research teams to advance the biological and mechanistic understanding of cancer etiology, genesis, and risk to identify new targets and approaches for cancer prevention, risk reduction and early detection. CanPath and Atlantic PATH can provide letters of support for applicants using our data and biological samples. Registration deadline: April 1, 2025 Application deadline: June 19, 2025 Additional details: https://bit.ly/3PtR8SC Upcoming webinars: January 29, 12:30-2:00 PM ET | Register here. February 5, 12:30-2:00 PM ET | Register here  

New Article – Investigating Skin Cancer Risk and Sun Safety Practices Among LGBTQ+ Communities in Canada

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Congratulations to Dr. François Lagacé, Dr. Ivan Litvinov and team on their new article, “Investigating Skin Cancer Risk and Sun Safety Practices Among LGBTQ+ Communities in Canada.” Participants from Atlantic PATH and the Manitoba Tomorrow Project were invited to participate in the SunFit study led by Dr. Litvinov at McGill University. Skin cancer prevention requires effective sun safety practices. Previous studies have shown that LGBTQ+ individuals exhibit lower sunscreen use and higher tanning bed usage compared to their non-LGBTQ+ counterparts. This SunFit study is the first to assess skin cancer risk factors, sun-protective behaviors, and skin cancer concerns among LGBTQ+ participants across Canada.

Got Your Toe(nails)! Guinness World Record Revisited

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The Guinness World Records team is once again reflecting on the record held by the Atlantic PATH cohort. In a new article, “Got your toe(nails)! Scientific study holds largest collection of toenail clippings,” Katherine Gross revisits the collection of toenail samples from Atlantic PATH participants. In 2013, Atlantic PATH received a Guinness Book of World Records for 24,999 toenail samples. Recruitment continued until 2015 and the total number of participants who donated toenails was 30,418!! Atlantic PATH represents participants across Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador, a region with the highest rates of cancer and chronic disease in the country. “Toenails are an important part of our research….What we’re particularly interested in, in this context, is the extent to which environmental exposure affects our risk of disease.” Atlantic PATH has used data and biological samples to develop an established environmental and occupational health research stream. Stay tuned for more toenail research that is currently in progress, and you can find recent publications here: 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, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1148283 Smith, N.K., Keltie, E., Sweeney, E., Weerasinghe, S., MacPherson, K., Kim, J.S. (2022). “Investigating the Association between Arsenic Exposure and Chronic Disease Using Toenail Speciation Biomarkers: A Feasibility Study.” Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety.   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoenv.2022.113269 Keltie, E.; Cui, Y.; Hood, K.; Sweeney, E.; Ilie, G.; Adisesh, A.; Dummer, T.; Kim, J.S. (2022). “The Association of Prostate Cancer with the Profiles of Arsenic Species and Metallome: An Analysis from the Atlantic PATH Cohort Study.” Frontiers in Public Health, Environmental Health and Exposome.   https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.818069 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. Fleming, D., Crook, S., Evans, C., Nader, M., Atia, M., Hicks, J., Sweeney, E., McFarlane, C., Kim, J.S., Keltie, E., Adisesh, A. (2020). “Assessing arsenic in human toenail clippings using portable X-ray fluorescence.” Applied Radiation and Isotopes. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apradiso.2020.109491 Fleming, D., Crook, S., Evans, C., Nader, M., Atia, M., Hicks, J., Sweeney, E., McFarlane, C., Kim, J.S., Keltie, E., Adisesh, A. (2020). “Portable X-ray Fluorescence of Zinc Applied to Human Toenail Clippings.” Journal of Trace Elements in Medicine and Biology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtemb.2020.126603 Dummer, T., Yu, Z.M., Nauta, L., Murimboh, J., Parker, L. (2015). “Geostatistical modelling of arsenic in drinking water wells and related toenail arsenic concentrations across Nova Scotia, Canada.” Science of the Total Environment, 505. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2014.02.055 Yu, Z.M., Dummer, T., Adams, A., Murimboh, J., Parker, L. (2014). “Relationship between drinking water and toenail arsenic concentration among a cohort of Nova Scotians.” Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology, 24. https://doi.org/10.1038/jes.2013.88 Yu, Z.M, Fung, B., Murimboh, J., Parker, L., Dummer, T. (2014). “What is the role of obesity in the aetiology of arsenic-related disease?” Environment International, 66.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2014.01.028  

Data Services in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia

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Our team was glad to attend the Maritime SPOR SUPPORT Unit (MSSU) webinar today to hear about the data services available in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Atlantic PATH data is linked to administrative data with the New Brunswick Institute for Research, Data and Training (NB-IRDT) and Health Data Nova Scotia (HDNS). Please feel free to reach out to any of our teams for more information!

Health Data Nova Scotia & Atlantic PATH – Linked Data

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We were happy to attend the Maritime SPOR SUPPORT Unit Lunch and Learn webinar today! Health Data Nova Scotia presented about their data holdings including new datasets from Atlantic PATH and Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging / Étude longitudinale canadienne sur le vieillissement in 2024. It also covered the role of Health Data Research Network Canada for studies with more than one province. Reach out to Health Data Nova Scotia and Atlantic PATH for more information on data holdings and the research access process! #HealthResearch

Ethan Ring & Dr. Cindy Feng at #CCRC2023

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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. 

CanPath at #CCRC2023: Canada’s Largest Population Laboratory for Cancer Research

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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 (Cui & Sweeney) at #CCRC2023

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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.