Grant: Project Grant

When cancer is caught early, the treatments are easier and the cancer can often be removed and cured. This study wants to find out why some cancers are caught early and why some are caught late by looking at the health patterns of people years before a cancer diagnosis. We will use the health, lifestyle and screening information given by several thousand Albertans who have now had cancer. This type of information collected in the Alberta Tomorrow Project (ATP) is extremely valuable because it is the most accurate when measured before cancer is diagnosed. It is also some of the most detailed information available not only in Canada, but the world. When we combine it with information about their cancer screening visits, say, mammogram dates, then we get a improved view of these health patterns. These patterns will be found using advanced methods that can combine many types of information in reliable ways. The important factors will be tested using mock data that mimics the ATP data. This will identify the best ones to catch cancer early so that they can be targeted by the cancer screening and prevention programs. The health patterns we discover will be studied in a similar group of adults in the B.C. Generations Project, so that we are confident of our findings. This B.C. study started a few years after the ATP one but has collected similar information on adults who did not have cancer when they enrolled in the study. The confirmed health patterns will then be used to improve cancer surveillance knowledge and activities in Alberta and beyond to find cancer earlier. The study team includes cancer prevention researchers, cancer surveillance and screening directors in Alberta as well as leaders of groups who will put the results into action.