Canadian Cancer and Biomarker Cohort (I-HELP-PREVENT-CANCER Project)

Objective

This study is the first step in building a biomarker validation resource and initiating BC's contribution to a national cancer research cohort. The project will develop and test procedures, methods, and instruments for recruitment of a population-based group of women through the Screening Mammography Program of BC (SMPBC).

Outcomes of this pilot project will be:

1. Well-tested methods and techniques for acquiring epidemiologic information, plasma and DNA samples from healthy women which can serve as a reference group for the validation of novel early detection biomarkers for breast and ovarian cancer.

2. Techniques to link to longitudinal health histories of participating women through the Population Health Learning Observatory.

3. Initial recruitment of 100 women to the BC component of a Canadian Cancer Cohort

The ultimate outcomes will be:

1. To accrue a group of 1000 women with at least 3 (and optimally 5) sequential blood specimens for use in biomarker validation studies.

2. To position BC as a major participant in the Canadian National Cancer Cohort, in collaboration with Alberta and Ontario.

Methods:

The pilot study will take place in Vancouver within the Cancer Control Research Program at the BC Cancer Research Centre. The initial step (May-October, 2007) will be to design appropriate data collection instruments or refine previous ones, and test operating procedures for collection of relevant epidemiologic and clinical information. From May-November, 2007 we will define standards and test operational procedures for blood collection, and processing and storage of specimens. Formal initiation of recruitment and blood collection will begin in October 2007, and will continue through April 2008. The intention will be to collect data, and blood on a minimum of 100 randomly selected women age 40-69 without cancer, who are participants in the SMPBC. Presently, about 507,000 BC women are enrolled in SMPBC, and a further new 31,000 women age 40-69 enrol each year. The initial 100 women will be selected from those who have previously indicated their willingness to be contacted, and all will be resident in the Greater Vancouver Area for convenience in initiating the program. Each woman will be asked to complete a questionnaire on environmental and lifestyle risk factors for breast and ovarian cancer. The women will be asked for an initial blood specimen to be used in future cancer studies, and will also be asked to give us permission to access their previous medical history. Those who agree to these requests will be asked if they are willing to provide further blood specimens, to determine what percentage of the women would agree to give a blood sample annually for 5-6 years.

Finally, we propose to determine the feasibility of linking each woman's questionnaire information to records through the Population Health and Learning Observatory (PHLO) at the University of BC (April 2008-July 2008). The PHLO can link detailed information on hospital admissions, physician visits, Pharmacare prescription use, long term care, and birth, death, and marriage information into longitudinal health records on BC residents from 1985. Successfully linkage (defined as 93% of women linking to longitudinal health records) will demonstrate the feasibility of constructing a medical history and life-course trajectory for women potentially going back to 1985. This will add value to the biomarker collection, and will define the unique BC contribution to a national cancer cohort.

Principal Investigator

• Marilyn Borugian

Research Team

• Angie Brooks-Wilson
• John Spinelli
• Nhu Le
• Rick Gallagher

Project Coordinators

• Donna Kan
• Barbara Jamieson
• Teresa Switzer
• Agnes Lai