Wednesday, July 08, 2026 Strengthening Biomarker Research in Canadian Cancer Clinical Trials: A Pathology-Focused White Paper. Current OncologyPathology is essential to modern cancer clinical trials, especially those that use tumour tissue to decide who can join, what treatment they receive, or whether the treatment is working. However, internal data from the Canadian Cancer Trials Group (CCTG) show that in many trials, tissue samples are either not sent in at all or sent as slides instead of the preferred tissue blocks—sometimes affecting 30–50% of patients depending on the cancer type. This means valuable research questions cannot be fully answered. To investigate the causes and identify solutions, a national working group of Canadian pathologists was convened. They identified five main gaps: pathologists are rarely included when trials are first being designed, current funding does not adequately support the extra work involved, digital pathology infrastructure is limited, pathologists’ contributions to trials are not formally recognized for career advancement, and there is confusion about consent and ethics rules for sharing tissue. Schaeffer DF, Chan J, Morin J, Guiot M-C, Yousef GM, Streutker CJ, Sekhon H, Fitzpatrick M, Virk S, Wyatt A, Spatz A, Shepherd L, Loree JM, Kinloch M. Strengthening Biomarker Research in Canadian Cancer Clinical Trials: A Pathology-Focused White Paper. Current Oncology 33: 347. 2026. https://www.mdpi.com/1718-7729/33/6/347
