The Princess Margaret Cancer Centre is teaming up with the Terry Fox Research Institute and BC Cancer Agency to launch an innovative pilot project to accelerate precision medicine for their patients.
The initiative, a first of its kind in Canada, comes at a time when other developed countries are investing heavily in strategies to improve survival from cancer through collaboration and precision medicine, which targets treatments based on an individual's genetic or molecular profile.
The pilot will provide much-needed evidence on how best to roll out a broader vision for data sharing and collaborative translational and clinical research to enable precision medicine for cancer patients.
The $12-million pilot project, which was announced today at a news conference at the Princess Margaret featuring representatives of all three organizations – which will jointly fund it – and the federal government, is the first phase for developing and implementing a national program that will link high-performing comprehensive cancer centres, hospitals and universities and their clinical and laboratory programs across Canada.
It will be called the Terry Fox Designated Canadian Comprehensive Cancer Centres Network – "TF4CN."
"As a world-leading comprehensive cancer centre, the Princess Margaret has made strategic investment to enable personalized cancer therapy through efforts in immune therapy, genetic sequencing and molecular imaging, thanks to the ongoing support of The Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation," said Dr. Bradly Wouters, UHN's Executive Vice-President, Science & Research.
"We are excited to participate in this new strategic partnership with the Terry Fox Research Institute and the B.C. Cancer Agency to enable collaborative efforts in these areas and to accelerate the implementation of effective, targeted therapies for patients."
To read the full news release,
click here.
To read a pilot project backgrounder, click here.
