The Marathon of Hope Cancer Centres Network (MOHCCN) announced last month that four new research teams will receive funding through its Pan-Canadian Projects program, which unites researchers and clinicians from multiple provinces to work on projects that accelerate precision medicine for cancer in Canada. The researchers from the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) funded in this round are involved in three projects that focus on lung, oral and prostate cancers.
This news followed the announcement in March of MOHCCN funding for projects led by Morag Park, PhD, and George Zogopoulos, MD, PhD, two researchers from the RI-MUHC and Rosalind and Morris Goodman Cancer Institute. Congratulations to the three additional RI-MUHC teams below!
Project 1 – Neoadjuvant precision therapy for non-small cell lung cancer: A platform for discovery
In the past decade, immunotherapy and other genetically determined precision therapies have revolutionized lung cancer care. For instance, a new treatment that combines immunotherapy with chemotherapy before surgery for patients with resectable lung cancer has been established as new standard of care across Canada, after it was found that this combination eliminates all lung cancer cells before surgery in one quarter of patients. But while these responses are extremely promising, they also mean that three quarters of patients treated with chemotherapy and immunotherapy before surgery do not completely respond to the treatment.
A team led by Dr. Jonathan Spicer, a scientist in the Cancer Research Program at the RI-MUHC, is setting out to better understand why this occurs. Their goals are to discover ways to predict which patients are most likely to benefit from these new precision treatments and how best to treat those who do not. “Our goal is to understand which medications are best suited to each patient,” says Dr. Spicer. “We are using the unique opportunity to understand exactly how these therapies work in responders and non-responders by taking a deep dive into the resulting cancer genetics and tumour immune environment after surgical resection.”
Learn more about this project on the MOHCCN website.
Project 2 – A multi-pronged approach to accelerate precision medicine for prostate cancer in Canada
A multi-disciplinary team of clinicians and researchers from three institutions in Quebec, including co-lead researchers Simone Chevalier, PhD, and Dr. Armen Aprikian, both senior scientists in the Cancer Research Program at the RI-MUHC, are uniting to accelerate precision medicine for patients with prostate cancer.
The team will deploy a multi-pronged approach to better understand why some prostate cancer patients respond to treatment and others don’t, with the goal of developing tests that predict who is at a greater risk of suffering from disease progression and create interventions to stop this from occurring.
“This project represents a significant step forward in understanding and combating lethal prostate cancer,” says Chevalier. “By harnessing cutting-edge molecular and imaging techniques, we aim to transform how we diagnose and treat this complex disease.”
Learn more about this project on the MOHCCN website.
Project 3: Canadian Head And Neck cancer GEnomic (CHANGE) Collaborative
Dr. Nader Sadeghi, senior scientist in the Cancer Research Program at the RI-MUHC, is part of a multi-disciplinary group of head and neck cancer experts from across the country are uniting under a newly formed team—the Canadian Head And Neck cancer GEnomic (CHANGE) Collaborative. Under the direction of Dr. Pinaki Bose at the University of Calgary,the team will work together to better understand the genomic underpinnings of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) recurrence, with the goal of coming up with better strategies to predict whose cancer is more likely to recur after treatment and find ways to avoid recurrence.
Learn more about this project on the MOHCCN website.
Each project lasts three years. In their first year, the groups will receive a total of $819,000 from the Network, with additional funds from partner institutions adding up to a total investment of $3,113,918. Further funding will be determined based on the number of cases that each group is able to contribute to the MOHCCN Gold Cohort.
To learn more about this announcement, read the MOHCCN press release.
HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government says it could be months before it reveals how many people are on the wait-list for a family doctor.
The head of the province’s health authority told reporters Wednesday that the government won’t release updated data until the 160,000 people who were on the wait-list in June are contacted to verify whether they still need primary care.
Karen Oldfield said Nova Scotia Health is working on validating the primary care wait-list data before posting new numbers, and that work may take a matter of months. The most recent public wait-list figures are from June 1, when 160,234 people, or about 16 per cent of the population, were on it.
“It’s going to take time to make 160,000 calls,” Oldfield said. “We are not talking weeks, we are talking months.”
The interim CEO and president of Nova Scotia Health said people on the list are being asked where they live, whether they still need a family doctor, and to give an update on their health.
A spokesperson with the province’s Health Department says the government and its health authority are “working hard” to turn the wait-list registry into a useful tool, adding that the data will be shared once it is validated.
Nova Scotia’s NDP are calling on Premier Tim Houston to immediately release statistics on how many people are looking for a family doctor. On Tuesday, the NDP introduced a bill that would require the health minister to make the number public every month.
“It is unacceptable for the list to be more than three months out of date,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Tuesday.
Chender said releasing this data regularly is vital so Nova Scotians can track the government’s progress on its main 2021 campaign promise: fixing health care.
The number of people in need of a family doctor has more than doubled between the 2021 summer election campaign and June 2024. Since September 2021 about 300 doctors have been added to the provincial health system, the Health Department said.
“We’ll know if Tim Houston is keeping his 2021 election promise to fix health care when Nova Scotians are attached to primary care,” Chender said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador‘s chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says that so far this year, the province has recorded 230 confirmed cases of the vaccine-preventable respiratory tract infection, also known as pertussis.
Late last month, Quebec reported more than 11,000 cases during the same time period, while Ontario counted 470 cases, well above the five-year average of 98. In Quebec, the majority of patients are between the ages of 10 and 14.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick has declared a whooping cough outbreak across the province. A total of 141 cases were reported by last month, exceeding the five-year average of 34.
The disease can lead to severe complications among vulnerable populations including infants, who are at the highest risk of suffering from complications like pneumonia and seizures. Symptoms may start with a runny nose, mild fever and cough, then progress to severe coughing accompanied by a distinctive “whooping” sound during inhalation.
“The public, especially pregnant people and those in close contact with infants, are encouraged to be aware of symptoms related to pertussis and to ensure vaccinations are up to date,” Newfoundland and Labrador’s Health Department said in a statement.
Whooping cough can be treated with antibiotics, but vaccination is the most effective way to control the spread of the disease. As a result, the province has expanded immunization efforts this school year. While booster doses are already offered in Grade 9, the vaccine is now being offered to Grade 8 students as well.
Public health officials say whooping cough is a cyclical disease that increases every two to five or six years.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick’s acting chief medical officer of health expects the current case count to get worse before tapering off.
A rise in whooping cough cases has also been reported in the United States and elsewhere. The Pan American Health Organization issued an alert in July encouraging countries to ramp up their surveillance and vaccination coverage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.
All orders are protected by SSL encryption – the highest industry standard for online security from trusted vendors.
Bizarre Sunlight Loophole Melts Belly Fat Fast! is backed with a 60 Day No Questions Asked Money Back Guarantee. If within the first 60 days of receipt you are not satisfied with Wake Up Lean™, you can request a refund by sending an email to the address given inside the product and we will immediately refund your entire purchase price, with no questions asked.
