Grant: Genomics and Personalized Health -Large-Scale Applied Genomics Res Projects

The vision of Go-PGx is to save lives and improve the quality of life for patients through the prevention of serious adverse drug reactions (ADRs) - often called ‘side effects’. The treatment of childhood cancer is particularly impacted by ADRs. ADRs in children are 3-fold more likely to be life-threatening and a staggering 75% of childhood cancer patients develop chronic health conditions and 42% develop disabling or life-threatening ADRs from cancer treatment. It is increasingly evident that genetic differences in patients affect one’s likelihood of experiencing an ADR – studying the variability in response to medication is called pharmacogenomics (PGx). Go-PGx is an integrated pipeline of innovative research and the development of tools to facilitate these findings (usually referred to as knowledge translation) into clinical practice by implementing lab tests to predict a patient’s likelihood of suffering from an ADR in pediatric cancer treatment. Go-PGx builds upon over 14 years of experience in studying ADRs with research collaborators integrated in 10 pediatric hospitals across Canada. We have collected over 6,125 DNA samples and have corresponding reports of medication use and ADR outcomes recorded in a clinical database. We will build upon this with four linked research activities: (1) We will make new research discoveries of genetic susceptibility to ADRs and (2) develop tools to educate and inform physicians and patients beginning with a prioritized focus on five severe pediatric oncology ADRs. We will generate a comprehensive ADR database of linked clinical and genetic information to provide an accessible resource for to help researchers around the world. (3) At the same time, we will start providing PGx testing in 10 pediatric oncology centers across Canada, (4) while studying important components to the uptake of ADR screening in the health care system, such as understanding what the barriers and facilitators are to making this kind of testing successful; what the perceptions of clinicians, patients and families are to this kind of testing; and understanding the economic implications of introducing this kind of testing into clinical practice across Canada. Go-PGx wants to provide this much-needed access to pharmacogenomic testing in pediatric oncology and lay the foundation for accessible pharmacogenomic testing in Canada.