Wednesday, June 24, 2020 Canadian Cancer Society Impact Grant - $1.5 Million Over 5 Years Dr. Alex Wyatt of BCCA Vancouver was awarded $1.5 million to support conduct of IND.234: Prostate Cancer Biomarker Enrichment and Treatment Selection (PC_BETS) Study - Master Screening Protocol Dr. Wyatt and his team have developed a validated plasma circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) assay to identify genomic subtypes in progressing metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). In this project, mCRPC patients across Canada will be screened in order to identify the subset of patients whose tumours are defective in specific classes of DNA damage repair. These patients will be assigned to one of two planned substudies of a world-first precision oncology clinical trial, and treated with platinum-based chemotherapy or a potent immunotherapy combination. The investigators believe their platform, combining genomic screening expertise with a comprehensive clinical trial network, will improve Canadian patient access to emerging therapies and advance a precision-medicine approach to care. Their focus on the use of simple blood collections means that, in the long run, community oncologists in both rural and urban centres can be involved in modern clinical research and that patients from varied population bases can access state-of-the-art care. The CCS Impact Grant program was designed to accelerate and focus the knowledge gained from scientific findings, in the short or long term, into outcomes that will significantly advance understanding of cancer and improve scientific knowledge, which will result in optimized patient care, improved cancer treatment or reduced cancer burden. Nine CCS Impact Grants were approved – 29% of all full proposals received. You can find more information about IND.234 here ... https://www.ctg.queensu.ca/trials/ind/i234/. 2020 Conquer Cancer-Breast Cancer Research Foundation Advanced Clinical Research Award in Breast Cancer - $450,000 over 3 Years Dr. David Cescon, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto, was awarded $450,000 to support his project, “A Liquid Biopsy-Guided Umbrella Trial for CDK4/6 Inhibitor-Resistant ER+ Breast Cancer. The Advanced Clinical Research Award in Breast Cancer supports physician-scientists committed to conducting original breast cancer research in an area that is currently not funded. Congratulations, Drs Wyatt and Cescon!!
