Janet Dancey, MD, FRCP(C)

Dr. Dancey is an international leader in cancer clinical trials of experimental therapeutics and has special expertise in new anti-cancer drug development. Her research interests involve linking drug and biomarker development, and associated clinical trials methodology, including development of novel trials for patients with rare tumours. As Director, she has advanced CCTG’s research strategy and expanded its portfolio dramatically. A prolific author with an excellent citation record, she is a sought-after speaker, both nationally and internationally.

In addition to her role at CCTG she is currently the Scientific Director of the Canadian Cancer Clinical Trials Network which supports the conduct of academic sponsored clinical trials at cancer centres and hospitals across Canada.  She is a Professor in the Department of Oncology at Queen’s University and a fellow at the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.

Dr. Dancey was previously Senior Clinical Investigator in the Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program at the US National Cancer Institute and then Associate Chief of the Investigational Drug Branch. Prior to becoming Director of the Canadian Cancer Trials Group in 2014, she was the Director, Translational Research – Clinical at CCTG, Scientific Director of the High Impact Clinical Trials Program at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research and Chair, Experimental Therapeutics and Translational Research Network, Cancer Care Ontario.

She received her MD from the University of Ottawa and completed her residency training in internal medicine and medical oncology at the University of Toronto. In 1994-95, she was a research fellow with the Canadian Cancer Trials Group and continued her fellowship training at the Institut Gustave Roussy in France.

Areas of expertise: experimental therapeutics, anti-cancer drug development, clinical trials methodology

Research interests: drug and biomarker development, novel trials in rare tumours

Current trials: CO27, I214, I224, I228, I235, I240, ME13, ME15, MEC5, PA7, PM1, SC8, SR6

Selected publications:

Litière S, Isaac G, De Vries EGE, Bogaerts J, Chen A, Dancey J, Ford R, Gwyther S, Hoekstra O, Huang E, Lin N, Liu Y, Mandrekar S, Schwartz LH, Shankar L, Therasse P, Seymour L; RECIST Working Group. RECIST 1.1 for Response Evaluation Apply Not Only to Chemotherapy-Treated Patients But Also to Targeted Cancer Agents: A Pooled Database Analysis. J Clin Oncol. 2019 May 1;37(13):1102-1110. doi: 10.1200/JCO.18.01100. Epub 2019 Mar 12. PMID: 30860949; PMCID: PMC6494357.

Camidge DR, Lee EQ, Lin NU, Margolin K, Ahluwalia MS, Bendszus M, Chang SM, Dancey J, de Vries EGE, Harris GJ, Hodi FS, Lassman AB, Macdonald DR, Peereboom DM, Schiff D, Soffietti R, van den Bent MJ, Wefel JS, Wen PY. Clinical trial design for systemic agents in patients with brain metastases from solid tumours: a guideline by the Response Assessment in Neuro-Oncology Brain Metastases working group. Lancet Oncol. 2018 Jan;19(1):e20-e32. doi: 10.1016/S1470-2045(17)30693-9. PMID: 29304358.

Boyd N, Dancey JE, Gilks CB, Huntsman DG. Rare cancers: a sea of opportunity. Lancet Oncol. 2016 Feb;17(2):e52-e61. doi: 10.1016/S1470-2045(15)00386-1. PMID: 26868354.

Tran B, Brown AM, Bedard PL, Winquist E, Goss GD, Hotte SJ, Welch SA, Hirte HW, Zhang T, Stein LD, Ferretti V, Watt S, Jiao W, Ng K, Ghai S, Shaw P, Petrocelli T, Hudson TJ, Neel BG, Onetto N, Siu LL, McPherson JD, Kamel-Reid S, Dancey JE. Feasibility of real time next generation sequencing of cancer genes linked to drug response: results from a clinical trial. Int J Cancer. 2013 Apr 1;132(7):1547-55. doi: 10.1002/ijc.27817. Epub 2012 Oct 11. PMID: 22948899.

Dancey JE, Bedard PL, Onetto N, Hudson TJ. The genetic basis for cancer treatment decisions. Cell. 2012 Feb 3;148(3):409-20. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2012.01.014. PMID: 22304912.

Dancey J. mTOR signaling and drug development in cancer. Nat Rev Clin Oncol. 2010 Apr;7(4):209-19. doi: 10.1038/nrclinonc.2010.21. Epub 2010 Mar 16. PMID: 20234352.

Dancey JE, Dodd LE, Ford R, Kaplan R, Mooney M, Rubinstein L, Schwartz LH, Shankar L, Therasse P. Recommendations for the assessment of progression in randomised cancer treatment trials. Eur J Cancer. 2009 Jan;45(2):281-9. doi: 10.1016/j.ejca.2008.10.042. PMID: 19097775.

Eisenhauer EA, Therasse P, Bogaerts J, Schwartz LH, Sargent D, Ford R, Dancey J, Arbuck S, Gwyther S, Mooney M, Rubinstein L, Shankar L, Dodd L, Kaplan R, Lacombe D, Verweij J. New response evaluation criteria in solid tumours: revised RECIST guideline (version 1.1). Eur J Cancer. 2009 Jan;45(2):228-47. doi: 10.1016/j.ejca.2008.10.026. PMID: 19097774.

Dancey JE, Chen HX. Strategies for optimizing combinations of molecularly targeted anticancer agents. Nat Rev Drug Discov. 2006 Aug;5(8):649-59. doi:10.1038/nrd2089. PMID: 16883303.

Dancey J, Sausville EA. Issues and progress with protein kinase inhibitors for cancer treatment. Nat Rev Drug Discov. 2003 Apr;2(4):296-313. doi:10.1038/nrd1066. PMID: 12669029.

For a full list of publications please visit PubMed.

Awards: