Grant: Collaborative Health Research Projects

In this project, we propose to combine three Canadian advancements in ultrasound imagingto implement a new and accurate solution for detection and monitoring of cancer. We will useprostate cancer (PCa) as a test case. This is the second most common cancer in Canadianmen, with about 25,000 new cases per year, and the expected global market for diagnosisand monitoring of PCs is $27B CAD/year by 2021. Accurate detection of aggressive PCaenables effective treatment of patients through surgical excision of the prostate with minimalrisk for recurrence of disease. It also allows continuous monitoring of cancer progression,which is key to improve quality of life, reduce morbidity and increase patient survival.However, current detection and monitoring methods are not robust: the establishedultrasound-guided prostate biopsy is unable to accurately locate tumors, and recentlydeveloped magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) approaches to visualize PCa have a very highrate of false positives and miss small and possibly aggressive cancer. Furthermore, MRI isvery costly and not widely available in Canada except in large, urban centres, leading todelayed diagnosis with worse clinical outcomes. Our unique technology promises to capturechanges in prostate tissue at high-resolution. We will validate this in patients with the help ofour principal knowledge translation partner, Exact Imaging. In addition, we will bring togetherexperts across natural sciences and clinical sciences with clinicians who will use thetechnology, at the Vancouver Prostate Centre. We will follow best practices in incorporation ofsex and gender diversity in recruitment and research, and will train two PhD students, threeundergraduate students, three urology fellows and one research engineer.