Wednesday, May 01, 2019 Every year at the CCTG Spring Meeting we recognize individuals who have contributed significantly to the mission and activities of the Canadian Cancer Trials Group. Presentation of the awards will happen at the Recognition Awards Ceremony on Friday May 3 from 5:30 to 6:00 at the Chelsea Hotel in Toronto. We are honored to acknowledge the 2019 CCTG Recognition Awards winners. Dr. Ralph Meyer Phase III Young Investigator Award Dr. Srinivas Raman Dr. Srinivas Raman completed his medical school at University of British Columbia and his radiation oncology residency at University of Toronto. During his residency, he worked with Dr. Edward Chow and the CCTG Quality of Life Committee to perform secondary analyses on the SC.20 and SC.23 trials. His research validates the use of the EORTC QLQ-BM22 questionnaire in patients with bone metastases and informs the interpretation of score changes in the QLQ-BM22 and QLQ-C15-PAL/QLQ-C30 instruments. He won the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer 2016 Young Investigator Award for these research efforts. He is currently a radiation oncology fellow at BC Cancer Vancouver. He is working with Dr. Alan Nichol, the HN6 trial team and the CCTG Quality Assurance committee to develop methodology to individualize and automate radiotherapy quality assurance in clinical trials; he received the 2018 Canadian Association of Radiation Oncology fellowship award for this research proposal. His clinical sites of interest include central nervous system, lung and genitourinary malignancies. His research efforts are currently focused on radiotherapy quality assurance and machine learning applications in oncology. Dr. Elizabeth Eisenhauer Early Drug Development Young Investigator Award Dr. Alexander Wyatt Dr. Alexander Wyatt is an Assistant Professor in Urologic Sciences at the University of British Columbia. He has a PhD in genetics (University of Oxford), and now specializes in human cancer genomics, particularly as it relates to cancer patient outcomes. The primary research goals of the Wyatt laboratory are to identify associations between molecular alterations in metastatic genitourinary cancers and clinical outcomes: thereby developing biomarkers for guiding therapy selection. The laboratory leverages a variety of next-generation sequencing and bioinformatics techniques to interrogate tissue and liquid biopsies from patients enrolled on a series of ongoing clinical trials and protocols. Recent work from Dr. Wyatt’s team, in close collaboration with Dr. Kim Chi and other senior medical oncologists and urologists, has demonstrated that plasma circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) is highly representative of metastatic lesions in prostate and bladder cancer, and that somatic alterations detected in ctDNA can help predict therapy resistance or response. Dr. Wyatt works closely with the Canadian Cancer Trial Group (CCTG) via the Genitourinary Disease Site Trial Development and Correlative Science committees, and also the Investigational New Drug Program committee. Dr. Wyatt directs the plasma ctDNA screening strategy and the molecular tumor board for IND.223/234, a multi-center phase 2 umbrella trial in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer patients (NCT03385655, NCT02905318). Dr. Joseph Pater Excellence in Clinical Trials Research Award Dr. Derek Jonker After studying undergraduate physics, Dr. Jonker did his medical school training at Queen’s university. He completed internal medicine and medical oncology training at the University of Ottawa, and a research fellowship with his mentor, Jean Maroun. He was a staff medical oncologist in London, Ontario, before returning to Ottawa where he filled various roles, including the Medical Director of Cancer Research. His greatest work-life pleasure has been working alongside Chris O’Callaghan and so many other amazing people as the chair of the Canadian Cancer Trials Group’s GI Disease Site Committee. Dr. Jonker is married with four adult children. He enjoys wilderness hiking and canoeing, as well as making music with friends and family. Phase III and Investigational New Drug Program Team Awards Investigational New Drug Program Team Award: IND.227 Team - Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal: Alexandra Frazzi, Fernanda Janeiro, Valérie Brulotte, Audrey Lavigne, Bertrand Routy, Marie Florescu, Jean-Pierre Ayoub, Anick Lambert, Mustapha Tehfé, Marie-Pier Jalbert Gariépy, Normand Blais Investigational New Drug Program Team Award: IND.234 Team - Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal: Amal Nadiri, Brigitte Brisson, Virginie Decamps, Vikie Lamontagne, Lyndsey Kirwan, Any Tétreault, Chantal Plantanoff, Cynthia Levesque, Olga Guerra, Cynthia Girard-Roc, Lyne Girard, Fred Saad Phase III Program Team Award: PM.1 Team - Princess Margaret Cancer Centre: Vicky Gillman, Nanthini Tharahan, Eoghan Malone, Sevan Hakgor, Amanda Giesler, Thenushi Jayasinghe, Jeffrey Doi, Celeste Yu, Vanessa Speers, Philippe Bedard, Tracy Stockley, Stephanie Lheureux, Trevor Pugh, Kelsey Zhu, Lillian Siu Phase III Program Team Award: MAC.22 Team - Ottawa Hospital Research Institute: Jean Seely, Raman Verma, Betty Anne Schwarz, Holly English, Luisa Ianni, Myka Caluyong, Kelly Villeneuve, Carolle Anderson, Christie Barbesin, Marzanna Bednarek-Zilinskas, Sharlene Bilmer, Annik Blanchette, Erin Fowlie, Sylvie Lachance, Pernille Lamontagne, Gary Heddon, Ian Byrne Meeting Highlights - Events you don't want to miss! Friday May 3, 2019 4:30pm to 6:00pm: CCTG Special Plenary Session and Awards Ceremony - The Special Plenary Session will be showcasing CCTG trials and activities followed by the CCTG Awards Ceremony. 6:00pm to 7:00pm: CCTG Reception - A great opportunity to network! Attendees are invited to enjoy an array of appetizers, refreshments and cash bar will be available. 7:30pm to 10:30pm: CCTG Battle of the Bands to beat CANCER! - Old Docs New Tricks VS Desolation Sound Machine - Find out more here: CCTG Battle of the Bands Saturday, May 4 4:30pm to 5:00pm: The General Meeting - The General Meeting is an opportunity to update all meeting attendees on the State of the Group. 5:00pm to 6:00pm: The Cosbie Lecture - Professor Stein Kaasa, European Association for Palliative Care Research network, in Oslo, Norway For a full schedule of events please visit the 2019 CCTG Spring Meeting Page. Don't forget to follow the #TrialsThatMatter conversation on Twitter @CDNCancerTrials #CCTG2019
