News
World Cancer Day: Updates from ACRI
(Moncton, NB) – February 4th, 2017 – World Cancer Day, which takes place every year on February 4th, is an initiative under which the entire world can unite together in the fight against the global cancer epidemic. With research facilities located in Moncton, New Brunswick, the Atlantic Cancer Research Institute (ACRI) is an integral part of efforts of the world-wide scientific community to progress the battle against cancer.
“Breakthroughs in our knowledge of cancer biology are the key that allows innovation to reach the cancer patient.” says Dr. Rodney Ouellette, President and Scientific Director at ACRI. “This new knowledge allows for the development of improved tests for early detection and diagnosis on the one hand, while leading to improved tailoring of new treatments to the individual. We can now say that we are routinely analyzing individual cancer genomes and with our liquid biopsy technologies we are moving towards the real-time personalization of patient care.”
“Joining forces to make a difference”
The global cancer burden can be reduced through partnerships between academic, health care systems, governments and the private sector, which leverage complementary skills to accelerate progress on shared goals to improve patient care. Combining efforts and mobilizing expertise plays a valuable role in sharing knowledge and experience to drive impact and make a difference. ACRI is actively pursuing partnerships around novel solutions for cancer and building capacity to address even more ambitious goals. This vision for precision and personalized medicine has received the support of the Governments of Canada and the Province of New Brunswick. Construction of the New Brunswick Centre for Precision Medicine (NBCPM) has begun and when complete will contribute to improving the well-being of patients in our region and beyond.
Spearheaded by Université de Moncton, this new center is a bold new concept built on partnerships around precision and personalized medicine, which is the tailoring of medical treatment to the individual characteristics of each patient. This new facility is transformative infrastructure for health and biomedical research that will deliver significant R&D impacts as it is New Brunswick’s first transdisciplinary health research centre situated in teaching hospital. In collaboration with its partners, ACRI, the Vitalité Health Network, the Centre de formation médicale du Nouveau-Brunswick, the Université de Moncton will create a leading-edge facility to pursue research and innovation in the field of precision medicine. This facility will welcome researchers and clinicians together in a collaborative environment that will be adapted to patient-oriented research. By combining efforts in clinical research and molecular diagnostic, the centre will enable clinician scientists from our Health Authorities to come together with our biomedical researchers. The impact of this research will span the spectrum from the discovery of better detection and diagnostic tests to real-time analysis of patient biopsies that will guide optimal decision-making in personalized clinical trials. The Center is scheduled to be fully operational in late 2018.
“Understand that early detection saves lives”
At ACRI, significant progress has been made in the field of Liquid Biopsy. Our approach to the detection and monitoring of biomarkers of cancer in body fluids should reduce the need for invasive biopsy procedures and will enable real-time monitoring of diseases.
“Liquid biopsy will become a central tool in patient care. Using a patient’s sample of blood or urine, it will allow doctors to detect, diagnose and monitor in real-time the current state of an ever-changing disease like cancer, as well as many other acute and chronic diseases. This made-in-Canada solution is an enabling technology that allows for quick and simple capture of cell-derived information that informs care providers in order to make key decisions for next steps in patient care.” Said Dr. Rodney Ouellette, MD, Ph.D., President and Scientific Director.
“We are at the Global forefront of the development of extracellular vesicle (EV) capture technologies from various biological fluids, and we are confident that our technologies are best suited to provide solutions for liquid biopsy in the field of oncology and other diseases. On the therapeutics side, our polysaccharide-based EV-capture tools strategically fit the demand for technologies that are applicable for EV-based therapeutics, as some of these biologicals are already FDA approved for multiple formulations, wound healing, and internal uses in human medicine. This fits well within the future prospects of precision and personalized medicine from liquid biopsy to targeted therapy,” said Dr. Anirban Ghosh, Ph.D., Principal Investigator, Team Leader of EV Research at ACRI.
With this technology, ACRI is building strong partnerships with major collaborators such as Exactis and Merck Canada, and is well-positioned for future collaborative projects in precision and personalized medicine.
“Support Your Local Cancer Research Organization on World Cancer Day”
Tremendous progress has been made in unraveling the mysteries of this disease and finding solutions due to research. Cancer research must remain a priority if we want to find more and better solutions to cancer.
The impact of research has led to a doubling of survival of cancer in the past few decades; now nearly two thirds of cancer patients will overcome their disease. This is of particular importance in regions like Atlantic Canada where the incidence of cancer remains above the national average. Support for cancer research in Atlantic Canada ensures we can continue to innovate and deliver to our patients the best possible care.
Since its inception in 1998, ACRI has evolved to become a leading not-for-profit biomedical research centre in Atlantic Canada. Research that is based right here in Atlantic Canada benefits us all, as it brings innovation and solutions right to our own communities.
On World Cancer Day, the community is invited to visit www.CancerResearchSavesLives.ca , leave a message of inspiration on our Wall of Hope or make a donation in support of cancer research in Atlantic Canada.
About ACRI
The Atlantic Cancer Research Institute (ACRI) is a private, not for profit research organization created in 1998. Located at the Dr.- George-L. Dumont University Hospital in Moncton, NB. Unique to the region and operating a modern biomedical research laboratory, this entrepreneurial team is striving to innovate by accelerating its understanding of cancer, thus paving the way to better diagnosis, more accurate patient stratification and drug discovery.
For more information, please visit www.atlanticcancer.ca or on Facebook, Atlantic Cancer Research.
-30-
For further information:
Martine Tremblay, Executive Assistant
Atlantic Cancer Research Institute
T 506.862.7512
email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
www.atlanticcancer.ca / www.cancerresearchsaveslives.ca