CO-FUNDED PROJECT BY IVADO
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among Canadian men, with approximately 25,000 patients diagnosed each year. Patients are classified into three groups: low risk, medium risk and high risk. Both high- and low-risk cancers are well characterized, as the development of the disease and optimal treatments are well known for these groups. For the medium-risk group, some patients remain in remission for several years, while for others, the cancer recurs rapidly after treatment. At the moment, there are no reliable predictive tools (clinical tests, imaging, histopathological methods) for this group of patients, who are often over-treated, leading to a significant impact on the healthcare system and on the health of patients.
In order to meet this need, the team aims to implement an affordable prognostic test to determine the risk of recurrence. This will enable clinicians to consider more aggressive treatments for patients at high risk of recurrence. The team had already identified genetic patterns to predict the risk of recurrence, but this test is too costly and time consuming to implement in the healthcare system. In order to implement a simple and affordable test, the team will characterize 104 biopsy samples from medium-risk prostate cancer patients using a microspectroscopy technique and machine learning technology.
Lead Genome Centre: Génome Québec
Partner: IVADO
Co-investigators:
| Dominique | Trudel | Université de Montréal |
| Cynthia | Ménard | Université de Montréal |
| Fred | Saad | Université de Montréal |
| Michael | Jermyn | Darthmouth |