Research in cancer survivorship has been expanding quickly in recent months at PHRI – both in the areas of cardio-oncology, and in how cancers relate to other causes of mortality in global health.
Darryl Leong, PHRI Scientist, is among six recipients of Canadian Cancer Society/CIHR Cancer Survivorship Team Grants, less than a quarter of all full proposals received in the competition – announced this month. His winning proposal – on the topic of cardiovascular and other comorbidities in patients with cancer (C3) – will receive a total of $2,384,321 in funding between now and 2024.
“This funding will allow us to recruit and follow more than 4,000 participants with prostate or breast cancer in Canada and internationally in our clinical trials,” says Dr. Leong. The grant for two research projects (Darryl Leong is a PI on both) that will address two key cardiovascular problems as it relates to cancer:
- Men with prostate cancer [RADICAL PC-Observational; RADICAL PC-Interventional.]
- Individuals with breast cancer who develop cardiotoxicity from trastuzumab, a life-prolonging therapy for many breast cancer survivors. [SCHOLAR-2].
C3 of growing importance
“C3 is of growing importance as it has been shown that cancer is the leading cause of death now in many countries” notes Dr. Leong. He is also leading a new substudy, called PURE ICE (International Cancer Epidemiology) which is investigating the development of cancers in more than 5,000 participants of the global PURE study, during 10 years of follow-up.
He was a co-Principal Investigator in the 2019 analysis of PURE data that showed the rise of cancers relative to other causes of death and disease in globally changing patterns (published in The Lancet and discussed in this video).
