Vancouver, BC – A new generation of imaging technologies is poised to play a key role in both discovery research and pre-clinical and clinical investigations for cancer. An international network has been established to share and reach consensus on best practices and leverage resources wherever possible. This network has the potential to facilitate the development, translation and dissemination of emerging imaging technologies.
With support from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)’s Institute for Cancer Research (ICR) and Genome British Columbia (Genome BC) two Canadian teams are now part of the Quantitative Imaging Network (QIN). Established by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) QIN is currently comprised of 21 research teams (nodes) across the US. With close to $4 million invested in them by the ICR and Genome BC, the two Canadian teams brings the number of teams up to 23 and are now an integral part of this network.
Ultimately, this work will help provide the best imaging standards to benefit Canadian patients undergoing cancer treatment. “There are several benefits for the patient through the integration and application of genomics and imaging tools. These include an improved understanding of cancer biology and changes to the clinical management of cancer and cancer risk,” says Dr. Alan Winter, President and CEO of Genome British Columbia. “Genome BC is delighted to play a role in this significant network.”
Assessing tumor response to medical interventions and adapting therapy through the course of an individual’s treatment is becoming the new standard of personalized cancer medicine care. This funding opportunity strengthens research in the area of medical imaging and has been launched under the CIHR Personalized Medicine Signature Initiative.
The partnership between researchers from Canada and the United States leverages NCI resources to promote research on quantitative imaging for prediction and measurement of tumor response to cancer therapies in clinical trial settings. To achieve the goals of the QIN, multidisciplinary teams that include oncologists as well as clinical and basic imaging scientists are required. The involvement of industrial partners in the development and adaptation/implementation of quantitative imaging methods to aid cancer therapies is encouraged.
With close to $2 million in funding UBC’s Dr. François Bénard is leading a research team that aims to improve existing methods to measure tumor size and activity and relate the total tumor mass to the amount of circulating tumor DNA in the blood. Researchers will then assess whether the integration of tumor imaging and genomic analysis (presence of specific DNA mutations) can improve the early detection of treatment resistance, in the hopes of improving our ability to predict which cancers will be responsive/resistant to treatment. This research will improve our ability to measure the effectiveness of new anti-cancer drugs in clinical trials and help identify the most beneficial treatment for a given cancer patient.
Dr. Bénard is a Professor and the Academic Head of the Division of Nuclear Medicine in the Department of Radiology at the University of British Columbia. He is the Scientific Director of the Centre of Excellence for Functional Imaging of Cancer at the BC Cancer Agency and a Distinguished Scientist at the BC Cancer Agency Research Centre. Dr. Bénard holds the BC Leadership Chair in Functional Cancer Imaging. Dr. Bénard’s primary research interest is in developing new molecular imaging tools and methods for the diagnosis and in vivo characterization of cancers.
-30-
