A new front in the fight against cancer

Louise Parker is the principal investigator for the Atlantic PATH. (Bruce Bottomley Photo)

A diagnosis of cancer is all too common today. In Canada, one in four people will die of the disease while 40 per cent of women and 45 per cent of men will develop some form of cancer during their lifetime.

In the Atlantic provinces, which have the highest rates of cancer in Canada, more than 13,400 people are diagnosed with the disease each year and 6,300 die from it. Because cancer develops over an extended period of time, pinpointing causes and common links in cancer patients is difficult. But a new project aims to change that.

The Atlantic Partnership for Tomorrow’s Health (PATH), the largest cancer research project ever undertaken in Atlantic Canada, will study those between 35 and 69 years of age, the group affected the most. The project will follow 30,000 Atlantic Canadian volunteers for up to 30 years to learn how lifestyles, environment and genetics influence cancer risks.

“The information obtained through this study will provide an enormous bank of information which researchers will be able to draw upon to help identify the causes of cancer and, in turn, develop better detection, treatment and prevention methods,” says Dr. Louise Parker, principal investigator for the Atlantic PATH and Chair in Population Health Cancer Research at Dalhousie. “This research will benefit future generations of Canadians—the children and grandchildren of participants in the Atlantic PATH.”

Participants will visit an assessment centre and answer questions about their health, diet and lifestyle, provide blood, urine, saliva and toenail samples and have standard physical measurements taken. Researchers will follow their health through cancer registries, hospitalization records and other health-related databases for up to 30 years.

“The Atlantic PATH research will help us understand why rates are so high in this region, so that we can find ways to deal with the causes and reduce those rates,” says Dr. Parker. “It may even help us find ways of preventing some cancers altogether.”

Housed at Dalhousie, Atlantic PATH launched its first assessment centre at the Halifax Shopping Centre Annex (formerly the West End Mall) on March 5. It’s the first of several centres planned for the Atlantic provinces, as part of a $42 million national study known as the Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow.

The 30,000 East Coast volunteers will be joined by 270,000 other Canadians from British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec who are participating in the Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow which is funded by the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer.

The Atlantic PATH and the national Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow Project will provide health planners and policy makers with vital knowledge, including a better understanding of the environmental, genetic and lifestyle factors likely to lead to cancer and other life-threatening diseases.