July 15, 2015
Story by Kristin Bernhard; photo courtesy of Canadian Partnership Against Cancer
The Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow Project (CPTP) — a landmark research portal that includes health and biological data from 300,000 Canadians, including tens of thousands of Albertans — was launched in Calgary in June.
CPTP is a cross-country study of Canadians that allows researchers to explore how genetics, environment, lifestyle and behaviour interact and contribute to the development of cancer and other life-threatening chronic diseases. The goal of the study is to determine why some people get diagnosed with these chronic diseases and others don’t.
Alberta Health Services (AHS) has been a partner of CPTP since 2008 through Alberta’s Tomorrow Project (ATP), one of the five provincial partners involved.
Dr. Paula Robson, Scientific Director, ATP, expects the volume of participants in the cohort study to be a key element to its success.
“Given the complexity of cancer, we must study huge numbers of willing participants over a long period of time to uncover meaningful information about its risk factors. Thankfully, hundreds of thousands of Canadians have come forward to share their health information in hopes of unlocking the mystery of why some people develop cancer or other chronic diseases.”
Launched as a local study in Alberta in 2000, ATP’s target recruitment of 50,000 participants will ensure a relevant sample size from our province in the largest data collection of its kind in Canadian history. All CPTP participants completed a health and lifestyle questionnaire, and many submitted blood and urine samples, physical measurements and even toenail clippings that can be used to study exposure to environmental toxins.
Amongst participants at the national event was the Honourable Rona Ambrose, who congratulated CPTP for creating one of the largest, most expansive cancer research databases in the world.
“This landmark study offers a wealth of information that will be opened to researchers, which could lead to new strategies in the fight against cancer and related chronic diseases,” says Ambrose.
The CPTP portal is valuable and unique because of the volume and variety of the information that has been collected.
Researchers have access to health and lifestyle surveys, health outcome data and even biological samples like blood and toenail clippings.
Researchers can also approach cancer and chronic disease from new angles, helping them dig deeper than ever before into its potential causes.
The data can be used to conduct long-term population health studies, which look at people’s health, lifestyle or health risks. As study participants age, some may develop diseases such as cancer or heart disease.
Researchers can then look back at their health data to search for factors that are linked to disease onset. These types of studies have pinpointed links between smoking and lung cancer, for example.
CPTP is designed to track participants for 20 to 30 years, giving researchers even more data for their vital work.
More information on CPTP and its coordinating partners, the data and how the platform can be accessed is available at partnershipfortomorrow.ca
