Collaboration to research prostate cancer biomarkers
Canadian research institute to collaborate with pharmaceutical company.
The Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR, Toronto, ON, Canada) has recently announced their collaboration with pharmaceutical company Janssen Inc. to investigate new prostate cancer biomarkers.
The OICR, headed by Tom Hudson as President and Scientific Director, is an independent, not-for-profit organization. Funded by the Government of Ontario, the institute focuses their research on “the prevention, early detection, diagnosis and treatment of cancer”.
The specific aims of this collaboration are to find biomarkers for the identification of patients with hormone-resistant prostate cancer who are at most risk of disease progression, in addition to finding biomarkers that indicate a patient’s response to anticancer treatment.
The researchers plan to evaluate archived diagnostic samples, circulating tumor cell samples and recent tumor biopsies; analyzing these samples with the aim to correlate the molecular profile to physiological outcomes. The ultimate aim is to develop new imaging probes, or biomarkers, for medical future use. To allow this, the project will establish up to three multicenter clinical trials, each lasting up to 3 years, in the Ontario region.
Hudson commented on the collaboration, stating that it will “further advance the world-class research in prostate cancer already underway in Ontario”. He continued, “We are happy to partner with Janssen on this project in the hope of providing patients diagnosed with prostate cancer better and more precise treatment options.”
