Terry Fox Research Institute launches pan-Canadian network to find better tools to treat prostate cancer

July 25, 2012

Dr. Robin Harkness, Canadian Partnership Against Cancer; Dr. Fred Saad, CHUM; Darrell Fox, Terry Fox Research Institute; Patrick Lamarche, patient of Dr. Saad; Dr. Robert Bristow, Ontario Cancer Institute, Princess Margaret Hospital; and Jacques Turgeon, CHUM. Photo: Stéphane Lord, CHUM.
Dr. Robin Harkness, the Partnership; Dr. Fred Saad, CHUM; Darrell Fox, TFRI; Patrick Lamarche, patient of Dr. Saad; Dr. Robert Bristow, Ontario Cancer Institute, Princess Margaret Hospital; and Jacques Turgeon, CHUM. Photo: Stéphane Lord, CHUM.

The Canadian Partnership Against Cancer is pleased to be a partner in the Canadian Prostate Cancer Biomarker Network. Launched today by the Terry Fox Research Institute (TFRI), the goal of this $4-million Partnership-supported project is to provide better tools — including new and more effective biomarkers — to treat and manage prostate cancer, the most commonly diagnosed cancer among Canadian men.[1]

With participation from top scientists and clinicians at leading prostate cancer care and research centres in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec, the group is working to identify new ways to determine which forms of prostate cancer require immediate treatment and which do not, as well as how to better predict which patients  are at risk of their cancer progressing following treatment (surgery or radiation therapy).

“We are extremely pleased to create this important biomarker research network and to provide a total of $3.5 million to address an important clinical question that both doctors who treat the disease and men who are diagnosed with it must consider,” said Mr. Darrell Fox, senior advisor for the TFRI. “Having more tools at their disposal for decision-making will help clinicians to better determine what treatment is best for a patient’s particular prostate cancer.”

Prostate cancer is the third-leading cause of cancer-related death in Canadian men.[2] In 2012, an estimated 26,500 Canadian men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer and about 4,000 will die from the disease.[3] Screening has enabled earlier diagnosis of prostate cancer, but with three out of four men actually diagnosed with a non-lethal form there is a heightened need for other treatment options.

“Bringing together expertise and resources from across the country through this network will help to advance the science needed to improve the lives of Canadian men diagnosed with prostate cancer,” says Dr. Robin Harkness, research specialist with the Partnership and the executive director of the Canadian Cancer Research Alliance. “This is one of several projects the Partnership has launched with the Terry Fox Research Institute with the practical goal of identifying emerging technologies that can improve the early detection and treatment of cancer and lead to better outcomes.”

Read the Terry Fox Research Institute’s press release.

Notes

1 Canadian Cancer Society. “General Statistics” media backgrounder, May 2012. 

2 Canadian Cancer Society’s Steering Committee on Cancer Statistics. Canadian Cancer Statistics 2012. Toronto: Canadian Cancer Society, 2012. p. 7.

3 Canadian Cancer Society. “General Statistics” media backgrounder, May 2012. www.cancer.ca.