from the July 26, 2010 issue of Connect

Scientists at Women’s College Research Institute Funded to Improve Follow-up Care After Cancer Diagnosis

Drs. Geoffery Anderson and Paula Rochon

On July 12, the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR) announced new funding for health services research that aims to improve how cancer care is delivered. Headlining the announcement was the funding of a new Women’s Cancer Survivorship Team to be based at the Women’s College Research Institute.

Thanks to improved cancer detection and treatment, 85 per cent of women now survive breast cancer. Survival rates for other female cancers are rising as well. But success creates a challenge. Our health-care system offers limited support services for cancer survivors and little information about the long-term consequences of cancer and cancer treatment.

That is all beginning to change. In partnership with Princess Margaret Hospital, a new After Cancer Treatment Transition program has opened at Women’s College Hospital to provide long-term followup for cancer survivors. Now, thanks to the support of the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research and its partner Cancer Care Ontario, a new research team focusing on the long-term consequences of cancer treatment will also be based here.

The Women’s Cancer Survivorship Team will explore the after-effects of cancer treatments and the interactions between cancer and other chronic conditions. The team will be led by Dr. Geoffrey Anderson, who holds a research chair at the University of Toronto and is an adjunct scientist at Women’s College Hospital, as well as Dr. Paula Rochon, vice-president research at WCH. Bringing together clinicians and researchers, the team will use the cancer registry, other comprehensive patient-level data, as well as cutting-edge research methods, to learn more about long-term effects of cancer treatment.

“The initial focus will be on women treated for early-stage breast cancer, looking at long-term effects on fracture risk and heart disease,” said Dr. Anderson. “We are also very excited about a series of projects that will look at whether drugs we use to treat conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure can improve cancer survival.”

For example, the funding will allow scientist Dr. Lorraine Lipscombe to build on her previous research showing an increased risk of breast cancer in women with diabetes. “Dr. Lipscombe and other members of our team will be exploring whether better diabetes control might improve cancer survival,” said Dr. Rochon.

The Ontario Institute of Cancer Research is supporting the new research team and a variety of research projects focused on improved cancer care across Ontario with a new investment of $5.6 million, said Dr. Tom Hudson, president and scientific director of OICR. “With this funding we are providing Ontario’s researchers with the support they need to ensure that the delivery of cancer care in the province is continually improving and providing a benchmark for other jurisdictions, specifically in important areas such as women’s cancer survivorship.”

For more information about the Women’s Cancer Survivorship Team, click here.