Cancer Research Changed My Life: Carol’s story

Carol Gordon explains how cancer research gave her a second chance.

I went from “healthy” to “terminal” in the blink of an eye.

In 2013, after years of clean physical exams, my doctors detected a gynaecological tumour the size of a golf ball. Turns out cancer had been growing, hidden inside my Bartholin gland, for as long as five years.

Though I felt great and had no symptoms, I was told I wouldn’t survive.

Surgery wasn’t an option for me. The tumour was too big and there was too much risk to the surrounding tissue. Instead, I was given a combination of chemotherapy and radiation.

While I was hopeful, my expectations were low. My treatment was only supposed to shrink the tumour, not kill it.

But cancer research changed that.

The same week I was due to start radiation, my hospital acquired a new, precision radiotherapy machine. The device harnessed the latest research innovations to deliver high doses of radiation to the precise location of a tumour.

I ended up being one of the first patients to be treated with the device. Now, 11 years later, I have no signs of cancer, much to the surprise of my doctors.

While I still experience side effects from my treatment, innovations in cancer research gave me a second chance. And I’m using that opportunity to give back.

I volunteer as a patient partner in cancer research in the hopes that my daughter doesn’t have to go through what I went through.

Carol Gordon is an accountant (CPA) and financial analyst (CFA) and was recently Managing Director, Audit Services at Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. She is a member of OICR’s Patient and Family Advisory Council, works with the Canadian Cancer Trials Group, and has a network of friends and family members who are patients or survivors.

Cancer Research Changed My Life: Ambuj’s story

Ambuj Srivastava talks about the difference cancer research made for his family.

Cancer research has changed my life because it gave me an extra year with my father, who was diagnosed with a rare cancer called bile duct cancer.

We advocated for him to participate in a clinical trial, and because of that trial, we were very fortunate to have him with us for an extra year beyond his original prognosis.

That extra year gave my daughter the opportunity to spend time with her grandfather. She learned many things from him during that time, which she fondly recalls now.

It had a significant impact on my mother as well, for whom my father was a caregiver. It gave him the time to spend with his wife and help her prepare for the eventual journey that she would have to lead after he passed away. It gave them a lot of personal time together, which allowed both to be able to come to terms with what was eventually going to happen.

It also had a tremendous positive impact on myself. Going through the journey with him during that extra year and being able to listen to his stories, his wisdom and his life experiences made me realize the traditions and values that we still have in our family. I was very fortunate to be able to live those traditions with him through that year, all of which now I’m able to continue in my own family.

It was also beneficial for his own acceptance of what was going to happen. It gave him the opportunity to spend time and reconnect and reminisce with his relatives back in India, his friends from his university days, and gave them the opportunity to seek closure.

After his passing, that extra year of spending time with all of us helped us with our emotional healing, knowing that we missed someone with whom we had pleasant memories and not painful memories.

Ambuj Srivastava has a background in Engineering and IT and also serves as a Research Advocate and Mentor with the Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation. As a former caregiver to his father with a rare form of cancer, Cholangiocarcinoma, he understands the challenges for patients and families who endure this difficult journey. Ambuj is passionate about cancer research, patient advocacy and raising awareness by bridging the knowledge gap between patients, caregivers, and healthcare professionals.

Cancer Research Changed My Life: David’s story

Dr. David Uehling shares the personal impact of his successful work in cancer research, as part of OICR’s ‘Cancer Research Changed My Life’ campaign.

Cancer research changed my life because I was lucky enough to be a part of a team that discovered a drug that impacted cancer patients.

I remember being thrilled one day when I was talking with a former colleague. She was telling me that the drug we worked on together was “melting” the tumours of patients.

Not only that, but she told me a story that was even more heartwarming.

This drug was being tested in Australia, where there was this surfer who got metastatic melanoma – a dreadful disease. They had to give up surfing and essentially were on their deathbed.

Then, they received the drug and were able to recover and go back to surfing.

When you hear a story like that, knowing how hard it was to discover the drug, and then to see ultimately the impact – not just in an abstract way, but on a real patient. It was just the thrill of a lifetime, and one that I don’t know how you can replicate in any other way.

Seeing this drug and how it changed this one person’s life was good enough in itself. But it’s also continuing to be used by patients worldwide.

I can get out of bed in the morning every day and know the drug is helping a patient. It just makes me feel like the research I’ve been involved with was all worthwhile. It has changed my life because I know that it’s changing so many other people’s lives.

Dr. David Uehling is a scientist and Interim Scientific Lead of Therapeutic Innovation and Drug Discovery at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research. The focus of his research is the design and synthesis of small molecules for cancer drug discovery.

Cancer Research Changed My Life: Michelle’s story

Michelle Audoin talks about the impact cancer research has had on her life, as part of OICR’s ‘Cancer Research Changed My Life’ campaign.

It’s easy to feel powerless when you’re diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic breast cancer.

My diagnosis in 2017 was especially complex. My breast cancer had already spread by the time it was detected, and doctors also found a second primary cancer in my thyroid.

As a result, my treatment options were limited and my family’s future was unclear.

I was devastated, angry and frustrated, but I was also determined to stand up and take control of my future as much as possible.

And cancer research helped give me that power.

I started attending research conferences, spoke to scientists, and got a better understanding of the science behind cancer research and treatments. Over the years, I have also participated in research studies that continue to shape my knowledge and perspective.

An OICR-supported clinical trial that explored using genome sequencing to guide cancer treatment gave me insights about my cancer’s unique biology, and the treatments that might work best against it. Another study, focusing on quality of life, helped solidify my personal priorities around my treatment preferences.

Living with metastatic breast cancer means that I live with a disease that currently has no cure. I am on treatment for life, with the goal of slowing or stopping the progression of the disease, while minimizing life-limiting side effects.

Informed by my experiences with research, I recognize that my personal priority is to access oral treatments that I can take at home, rather than as an IV infusion at the hospital. I was able to communicate that priority to my healthcare team and ultimately maintain my quality of life and engage fully as a mom.

While cancer research has certainly changed my life, it also motivates me to want to help others. That’s why I raised my hand to become a patient partner in cancer research.

Through patient partnership, I’ve been able to shape research studies to make sure they address the priorities of cancer patients and advocate for improvements. This is especially meaningful as a Black woman, because people like me have too often been marginalized and underrepresented in cancer research.

My involvement in cancer research has also connected me with an inspiring community of scientists, advocates and diverse individuals affected by a cancer diagnosis. Working with them and learning from them gives me a window into what’s possible in the future.

Innovative blood tests called ‘liquid biopsies’ may soon spare people like me from the endless scans, and catch disease progression before symptoms affect my quality of life. And the rapid advancement of targeted therapies could mean even better treatment options are on the horizon.

This knowledge changes the way I look at my own experience with cancer. It also gives me hope that research, treatments and survivorship will continue to improve as my kids get older.

Michelle Audoin lives with Stage 4 breast cancer and advocates for the unmet needs of undersupported communities in the cancer care space, with a focus on health equity and the patient voice. She is involved in many cancer organizations and awareness campaigns, and loves to speak to healthcare agencies and on panels about her own experiences navigating cancer as a Black woman. Michelle comes from an education background and is a mom.

Cancer Research Changed My Life: Carla’s story

Carla Bossart-Pletzer shares her personal connection to cancer research as part of OICR’s ‘Cancer Research Changed My Life‘ campaign.

Cancer research has fundamentally meant the difference between me seeing 40 years old and not seeing 40 years old.

I’m a mom of two small kids. I have a daughter who is six and a son who is nine. At the time I was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer in 2022, my kids were little and I was facing a really challenging situation. My surgeon said to me that if everything went perfectly, she’d give me a 70 per cent chance at being here in five years.

If it had been five years earlier though, she and I would have been having a very different conversation. My diagnosis was not nearly as survivable back then.

Cancer research has changed the kind of treatments that are available, and the way they approach breast cancers, specifically with neoadjuvant chemotherapy. In my case, some of the cancer treatments available to me were different than they were five years earlier.

And research has kept evolving since then. We’ve added immunotherapy to the mix, for example. We’re also enabling personalized medicine approaches – which is really cool.

In my work as a patient partner, researchers tell me they enjoy hearing my story because it’s a story of survival. It shows that research is helping move the needle.

It’s hard to put into words, but cancer research changed my life because without cancer research, I would not have a life to be talking about right now.

Carla Bossart-Pletzer is a mother of two small children and a freelance designer and illustrator. She was diagnosed with stage-III, triple negative, inflammatory breast cancer at age 34. She is focused on communicating the challenges of early adult cancer and the long-term health consequences of both life-saving and prophylactic treatments as a carrier of BRCA1, MSH-6 and ATM genetic mutations. Located in Sudbury, she advocates for expedient and socially equitable cancer diagnoses and treatment for patients of Northeastern Ontario.

Cancer Research Changed My Life campaign shows personal impact of scientific discoveries

A new campaign from the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR) celebrates the profound difference cancer research is making in the lives of Ontarians.

Launched on World Cancer Day 2025, Cancer Research Changed My Life showcases the people behind research discoveries, bringing their personal stories to life through videos and first-person testimonials.

As the province’s cancer research institute, OICR brings together a community of scientists, cancer patients, clinicians and everyday Ontarians to solve cancer together. With Cancer Research Changed My Life, OICR is shining a spotlight on that community and what is has achieved.

“Cancer research is about more than just hope. It is about using scientific insights to make a tangible difference in people’s lives every day.” says Dr. Christine Williams, Acting President of OICR. “The stories featured in this campaign are a testament to the power of research and its potential to transform the future of cancer.”

Cancer Research Changed My Life debuted with a series with powerful stories from cancer patients and a scientist:

“Without cancer research, I would not have a life to be talking about right now.” – Carla

Watch Carla’s full video

“Cancer research has helped give me the power to stand up and take control of my future, while living with metastatic breast cancer.” – Michelle

Read Michelle’s full testimonial

“To see a drug that I helped discover have a real impact on patients facing this dreadful disease is the thrill of a lifetime.” – David

Watch David’s full video

The campaign will continue for the rest of 2025, with new stories published throughout the year. OICR is encouraging people to join in the campaign on social media by sharing their own stories about cancer research using the hashtag #ChangedMyLife

This year also marks OICR’s 20^th anniversary.

“Decades of research have led to significant advances in our understanding of how cancer develops and evolves, and therefore how we can prevent, diagnose and treat patients,” says Dr. Lincoln Stein, Acting Scientific Director of OICR. “With support from the Ontario Government and our partners across the province, we’ll continue our work help cancer research change even more lives in the future.”

To see more about how cancer research is changing lives, visit changedmylife.oicr.on.ca and follow OICR on Instagram, YouTube, Linkedin and Bluesky.

Study reveals early mechanisms behind deadly brain tumours

Researchers at OICR, SickKids and Cambridge (UK) made new discoveries about how glioblastoma develops at the earliest stages.

New OICR-supported research published in leading scientific journal Nature could provide a blueprint to stop deadly brain tumours before they progress.

Researchers made two significant discoveries – a new cell type and a novel cellular process – they believe play a key role in the development of glioblastoma, one of the deadliest forms of brain cancer.

Glioblastoma is not usually diagnosed until it reaches the late stages. This leads to poor outcomes for patients, and limits what can be learned from tumour samples, which are already very complex by the time they are resected.

Researchers at OICR, SickKids and Cambridge (UK) used genetically engineered mouse models to take a closer look at the early development of glioblastoma, monitoring tumours at various stages using MRI and genome sequencing.

“Our work provides a detailed map of the entire process of glioblastoma development and reveals new insights that could lead to better diagnosis and treatment strategies for this incurable disease” says Dr. Akram Hamed, the study’s lead author and postdoctoral fellow at SickKids.

“We are seeing for the very first time how a brain tumour develops,” says Dr. Peter Dirks, Chief of the Division of Neurosurgery at SickKids and the study’s senior author. “By targeting the earliest steps of tumour formation, we can explore new avenues for the treatment of glioblastoma and improve outcomes for patients and families affected by brain cancer.”

First, they observed a novel cell type that resembles ‘neural-crest’ stem cells and is present in large numbers in the early stages of glioblastoma development. Hamed and colleagues also discovered a novel process induced during the early stages of glioblastoma development that resembled the body’s injury healing response. They found that process seemed to induce the development of the novel ‘neural-crest-like’ cells.

“We found the tumour initiation process to be mimicking a brain injury response,” Hamed says. “This has important therapeutic implications, raising the prospect of discovering new biomarkers for earlier diagnosis and thus also raise the possibility for intercepting tumour development by application of therapeutic approaches to target these injury-like programs.”

Knowing what drives glioblastoma at its earliest stages could ultimately help develop tools to diagnose it before it is symptomatic. A blood or cerebrospinal sample, for example, could provide evidence of that injury-like process. These cells and processes could also be targets for new glioblastoma therapies that could effectively stop the disease before it grows and becomes more complex.

The study represents another high-impact collaboration between Dr. Dirks’ lab and Dr. Lincoln Stein’s lab at OICR that generated important new knowledge about brain tumours. In 2022, Hamed, Dirks and Stein and colleagues published an atlas of more than 100,000 brain cells from mice in Nature Communications, which provided important insights on how glioblastoma and other glial cancers develop.

Stein is one of two OICR authors on the new Nature paper alongside Dr. Quang Trinh, who performed core computational analysis for the project.

“We know that finding cancer earlier gives patients the best chance at living longer and living better,” says Stein, Head of Adaptive Oncology at OICR. “These novel discoveries about how glioblastoma develops open the door for all sorts of innovative solutions that could shift the paradigm for people diagnosed with brain tumours.”

Let’s talk about clinical trials: Why trials are important

The first in our multi-part series explores why clinical trials are important for cancer research and patients.

Clinical trials are the bridge between leading edge cancer research and clinical care, yet only a fraction of Canadian cancer patients participate in a trial. The result is that many trials struggle to recruit enough participants while others close prematurely, delaying or failing to provide answers to the research questions they are designed to investigate.

The reasons for low participation in clinical trial are complex, and OICR is leading efforts to overcome them. One of the biggest barriers to participation is lack of awareness, and that’s why it’s so important to get patients, family members, clinicians and scientists talking about clinical trials.

With that in mind, OICR News is launching the Let’s talk about clinical trials series, where we ask clinical trials experts about why trials are important, how participant safety is protected, and what it’s like to participate in a trial.

In the first instalment of our series, we talked to Stephen Sundquist, Executive Director of 3CTN, the Canadian Cancer Clinical Trials Network, which seeks to improve the efficiency of academic cancer clinical trials across Canada and ensure they can be accessed equitably.

To start, can you talk about why clinical trials are important for cancer research and care?

Clinical trials represent a critical step in the clinical translation pathway, testing the safety and effectiveness of new discoveries in cancer prevention, detection and treatment. Trial outcomes advance our understanding of how these innovations perform “at the bedside” and contribute to improvements in standards of care for cancer patients.

How do cancer patients benefit from participating in a trial?

Cancer patients considering participating in a clinical trial receive comprehensive information about their disease and the potential risks and benefits associated with available treatment options. If they ultimately participate in the trial, they may receive the intervention being tested, which has the potential to improve their overall survival and/or quality of life.

All clinical trial participants also benefit form added health surveillance and monitoring built into study procedures – including assessments and diagnostic testing – to monitor their disease progression, response to interventions being tested, and other measures designed to ensure patient safety.

What is 3CTN doing to improve cancer clinical trials in Canada?

Our pan-Canadian Network is comprised of more than 240 clinical research professionals as well as patient partners from more than 60 cancer centres across eight provinces. 3CTN members work collaboratively on strategic priorities for improving the efficiency, quality and impact of academic cancer clinical trials.

That means helping ensure new trials can be accessed through multiple cancer centres and supporting those centres to adopt best practices for improving the speed with which those trials are made available to patients. It also means raising awareness about trials and helping improve recruitment to ensure cancer patients have equitable access.

For example, one of our most exciting initiatives has been to steer the development of a decentralized clinical trial framework called CRAFT, which supports cancer centres to conduct trials involving satellite healthcare centres located closer to a patient’s home. Traditionally, trial participation for those living in rural and remote communities necessitates travel to a cancer centre in an urban centre, which may be located far from home or even out of province. Not surprisingly, many patients choose not to participate at all because of the added time and effort required. With CRAFT, we’re leveling the playing field by offering cancer patients the opportunity to participate in clinical trials no matter where they live.

What else would you like people to know about clinical trials?

The development and conduct of a clinical trial is a highly-regulated process that involves a huge collective effort on the part of study sponsors, clinical research professionals, regulators, ethics review boards, and others working to assure trials are conducted to the highest standards for assuring patient safety and potential benefit.

My hope is that every patient will ask their healthcare team about clinical trials. Though not everyone will be a fit for a clinical trial, the option of participating in a trial should always be part of care discussions.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of our series, which will focus on the systems and structures in place to make sure clinical trials are safe for participants.

Groundbreaking radiotherapy research changes how metastatic cancers are treated

OICR-supported scientists are pushing the boundaries of radiotherapy to help patients with the most complex cancers.

The future was uncertain for the first cancer patient to enroll in the SABR-COMET clinical trial.

It was 2012, and the OICR-supported study was one of the first randomized controlled trials to explore the use of stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR) to treat patients with multiple metastatic lesions.

Metastasis is when cancer spreads from the original tumour to a different part of the body. It makes treatment more complex for patients and dramatically decreases their survival rates.

Facing a poor prognosis, that first patient put their hopes in SABR, a new and somewhat unproven form of radiotherapy.

SABR involves delivering high doses of radiation to the precise location of a cancerous lesion, as guided by advanced imaging tools. Up to that point, it had mainly been used to treat primary lung tumours.

But Dr. David Palma and colleagues at London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) believed that SABR could make a difference for patients with metastatic cancers in all areas of the body.

“The question of whether SABR could treat metastasis was quite controversial at the time,” says Palma, a Radiation Oncologist at LHSC and OICR Clinician Scientist. “But we saw its promise and the potential to offer something more to our patients.”

Over the next four years, SABR-COMET recruited nearly 100 patients at sites across Canada, the Netherlands and Australia. Participants who received SABR ended up living an average of two years longer than those who didn’t. Some were even cured entirely, including that first participant from 2012, who was discharged 10 years later with no evidence of recurrence.

The results of SABR-COMET were so promising they have helped changed the perception of SABR among oncologists and patients, and contributed to an uptick in its use for metastatic cancer in Ontario and around the world.

They also inspired Palma and colleagues to keep pushing the envelope.

While the first SABR-COMET trial mostly treated patients with one to three metastatic lesions, subsequent trials have worked with patients whose cancer spread even further. Now, Palma and colleagues have launched a new randomized control trial using SABR to treat patients with more than 10 metastatic lesions.

“Over the years, we’ve become comfortable with using SABR to treat more and more complex patients,” Palma says. “And now we’re pushing the boundaries to try and help our patients live longer and better lives.”

***

Palma’s interest in SABR began in Amsterdam. There, he worked with SABR “pioneers” Dr. Suresh Senan and Dr. Ben Slotman as part of a fellowship that was partly funded by OICR. When he returned to Canada and began practising at LHSC in 2010, he was determined to further investigate the technique.

SABR offers a few advantages over other treatment options. The large dose of radiation can help treat tumours that are resistant to traditional radiotherapy. And because radiation is delivered to such a precise location, there is less risk of damage to surrounding tissue. That means patients often have minimal or no side effects from SABR, unlike with chemotherapy, which is often used to treat metastatic lesions.

SABR also has its limitations. Sometimes lesions are in locations that are right next to important structures, like the airway, and this can increase the risk of side effects. And the more lesions you treat, the more complex it is to plan and execute SABR.

But Palma and colleagues learned a lot from SABR-COMET about how to plan and execute treatment for multiple lesions, so they wanted to keep pushing.

***

They next tested SABR in patients with between four and 10 metastatic lesions. The OICR-supported SABR-COMET 10 enrolled more than 200 patients internationally, before wrapping up in 2023. Early results show SABR was feasible and safe for this population, with results on effectiveness expected shortly.

Then researchers launched the ARREST study in 2020, which would use push SABR even further to treat patients with more than 10 metastases. ARREST would be especially challenging because these patients are often unwell with a fast-progressing disease, leaving little time to plan and execute treatment.

Still, they were motivated to provide another option for this population, who may not be well enough to endure the side effects caused by other treatments.

The first ARREST study was led by Palma’s LHSC colleague Dr. Glenn Bauman, a Radiation Oncologist and Clinical Lead of OICR’s Clinical Translation program. Results were published recently in the Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics, showing that SABR was feasible for patients with more than 10 metastases and caused limited side effects.

Armed with that knowledge, Bauman and Palma helped a junior radiation oncologist Dr. Timothy Nguyen launch the ARREST-2 randomized control trial earlier this year, hoping to see whether SABR can effectively treat such a large tumour burden. With support from OICR, patients are now being recruited in London, with plans to expand across the country.

While they know SABR may not reverse the prognosis of patients with such a high disease burden, they are hopeful ARREST-2 will help give patients a new, effective tool against metastasis.

“Even if we can’t cure their cancer, if we can give somebody another six months or another year of time with a high quality of life, then that’s immensely valuable for them,” Bauman says.

***

By helping expand the role of SABR in metastatic cancer, this research has already touched the lives of hundreds of patients over the past 12 years.

“SABR is now regarded as a standard-of-care option for people with limited metastatic disease, and the SABR-COMET studies really laid the foundation,” says Baumann.

Despite these advancements, Palma says there is still plenty of work to be done – especially for patients with complex metastatic disease.

“It’s important to keep innovating for patients,” he says. “There is always more we can do, whether it’s helping someone manage their symptoms or helping them live longer.”

Palma credits his colleagues for the amazing collaborations along the way. He is also grateful to OICR for supporting his research for more than a decade through the Institute’s Investigator Awards program.

He says funding from OICR helped him get the SABR-COMET research off the ground, and he was able to leverage it to grow the program.

“The support I have received from OICR not only lit the spark for my research, but it also kept it burning for all these years,” Palma says.

CanPath partners with CIHI to develop a fuller picture of Canadians’ health outcomes

CanPath partners with CIHI to enable the sharing of important health data to offer comprehensive insights into Canadians’ health trends and outcomes over time.

The Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow’s Health (CanPath) and the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) are partnering to make a difference in how researchers can assess the health of Canadians.

On September 23, 2024, the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR) and CanPath hosted a celebration to mark this collaboration. The collaboration will integrate CIHI’s health services data—including hospital stays, emergency department visits, and stays in long-term care—with CanPath’s genomic, health, and lifestyle data to offer better insights into health trends and outcomes over time.

“By partnering with CIHI, we are creating a comprehensive, unique data set,” says Prof. Philip Awadalla, National Scientific Director at CanPath and Director of Computational Biology for OICR. “A researcher or partner will only have to go to one institution rather than multiple sources to access health services data linked to existing CanPath data.”

Currently, CanPath holds the health information — hosted safely and securely by OICR — of 1 per cent (or 330,000) of people living in Canada who self-report through the study. Most of these participants consented to having CanPath link this data with data held by CIHI — that is, information about their interactions with health systems, such as the type of visit, or clinical information, such as diagnoses or procedures. In cases where this consent was provided, a study participant’s genomic, health and lifestyle data will be connected with their health service records.

“This is all built on a foundation of privacy and security,” says Steve O’Reilly, Executive Director of Federal Relations at CIHI. “I’m actually one of the 330,000 campaign volunteers who have agreed to have my data used and linked, and I’m very excited that this partnership is here.”

“It is time to figure out how to do this better, whether it be looking at the social determinants of health, understanding how we can intervene in genetics and genomics, understanding what we can do to improve health and healthcare,” says Prof. Adalsteinn Brown, Dean of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, the scientific home of the CanPath National Coordinating Centre. “This linkage actually allows us to bring all of that together.”

CanPath and CIHI are not alone in this endeavour to make more complete data available. For instance, CanPath and the Health Data Research Network Canada (HDRN Canada) formed a partnership in August 2020 that is working towards enabling linkage between CanPath data and administrative health data held at provincial data centres. Organizations like CanPath, CIHI, and HDRN Canada are working together to simplify access to linkable multi-jurisdictional data.

With this immense linkage activity, researchers will be able to efficiently and securely access a ready-made dataset that would otherwise take them a year or more to bring together.

“One of the great benefits of this linkage is its timeliness,” says Prof. Victoria Kirsh, National Scientific Coordinator at CanPath and Assistant Professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. “Instead of waiting years for new questionnaires or additional data, we have annual updates that will allow us to keep a finger on the pulse and conduct both immediate and impactful research.”

“CIHI’s partnership with CanPath allows us to progress our mandate of delivering comparable and actionable information to accelerate healthcare improvements,” says Brent Diverty, Vice President of Data Strategies and Statistics. “CIHI understands that contributing the health services data for participants of the CanPath study will create a more comprehensive look at how Canadians interact with our health systems and, over time, increase the types of research questions that can be answered, ultimately improving the health of Canadians.”

Jordan Hunt, Data Request Services Manager at CIHI, underscored the unique value of the newly linked dataset created through the partnership: “This is a really exciting, unique linked dataset. CIHI [collects] information about an individual’s interactions with the healthcare system, whether they visited the hospital, a doctor, or the medication they’ve taken.”

“Combining that with CanPath’s information on their genomics, their health, their behaviours, and the environments they live in gives us a really exciting opportunity to look at the relationships between these factors and how they impact the population.”

Soban Arshad, Research Partnerships Officer at the University of Toronto’s Innovations & Partnerships Office, emphasized the significance of the CanPath-CIHI partnerships for advancing research and fostering innovation: “It’s exciting to see these linkages come together at both the national and regional levels through our collaboration with CIHI.”

“This partnership gives us access to data we previously didn’t have, which will open the door for researchers to conduct new types of analysis and explore innovative ideas. It’s also great that the University of Toronto is representing CanPath in this effort, highlighting the university’s role as a leader in cutting-edge research in the field.”

The potential impact of this partnership is immense. Dr. Craig Earle, Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer, adds, “It’s really made our hearts grow to see how CanPath has become a world-class research platform.”

He describes how the data linkage is part of CanPath’s evolution into a world-class research platform. “As a health services researcher myself, I know the importance of being able to bring information on social determinants of health and disease risk factors together with information with interactions with the health care system to get insights,” he says.

This collaboration is a significant step forward in health data integration. “It’s our mission to be a longitudinal health laboratory,” says Awadalla, “and this finally aligns CanPath with other initiatives that are happening internationally, such as major programs like the UK Biobank, and it also allows us to fully utilize the Canadian public health system.”

OICR President and Scientific Director Dr. Laszlo Radvanyi sees the potential of CanPath in developing early cancer detection tools and improving healthcare for Canadians. “It’s a huge advantage for Canadians to have CanPath,” he says.

About CanPath:

The Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow’s Health (CanPath) is Canada’s largest population health study and a national platform for health research. Comprised of more than 330,000 volunteer participants, CanPath is a unique platform that allows scientists to investigate how genetics, environment, lifestyle, and behaviour interact and contribute to developing chronic disease and cancer. CanPath is jointly hosted by the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research and the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health with national funding from the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer. To learn more, visit www.canpath.ca.

About CIHI:

The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) is an independent, not-for-profit organization dedicated to providing essential health information to all Canadians. CIHI works closely with federal, provincial and territorial partners and stakeholders throughout Canada to gather, package and disseminate information to inform policy, management, care and research, leading to better and more equitable health outcomes for all Canadians.

CIHI is a member of the Health Data Research Network (HDRN) Canada. HDRN Canada is a pan-Canadian network of provincial, territorial and pan-Canadian health data organizations supporting transformative and world-leading multi-regional health data use.

Health information has become one of society’s most valuable public goods. For 30 years, CIHI has set the pace on data privacy, security, accessibility and innovation to improve Canada’s health systems.

This story was originally published on CanPath’s website and has been re-published here with permission.

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