2023 Recipients
Four projects totaling $322,859 were awarded funding in the 2023 edition of the Rossy Cancer Network's CQI Research Fund competition.
Skin Cancer - Indigenous communities
Co-Creating and Implementing Integrated Skin Cancer Care and Increasing Skin Cancer Research in Northern Remote Communities of Nunavik and the Cree Territory of James Bay.
Skin cancer care for Quebec Indigenous communities is lacking at this time in the northern remote territories. While many safe treatments are available, these treatments are not accessible in the northern regions due to lack of established care/clinics. The proposed implementation science project will be centered on meaningful engagement of patients, doctors/nurses and wider communities, continuous monitoring/analysis and feedback based on collected data to the members of the team and to Nunavik/Cree Health Boards, Elders, patients with lived experiences overseeing the effort with the goal of achieving the Quintuple Aim and health equity for the region. The proposed project will build on the existing McGill RUISSS infrastructure to establish in-person dermatologic care in northern communities and will 1) establish a learning healthcare system; 2) collect quantitative/qualitative data on 5 selected skin cancers (KS, melanoma, BCC, cSCC, and MCC), barriers to care and treatments; and 3) will promote a community of concern amongst patients and families through Patient and Public Involvement, knowledge mobilization and educational activities. The impact of the project will be a co-creation of a culturally sensitive sustainable skin cancer care in these regions.
PI: Ivan Litvinov (MUHC)
Head and Neck Cancer
Pretherapy botulinum toxin to reduce radiation-related xerostomia in head and neck cancer
Head and neck cancer care, including tumors of the mouth, nose, throat and voice box, often requires radiation for cure to be achieved. Despite advances in radiation, 40% to 60% of patients experience a significant dry mouth (xerostomia) following radiotherapy. Several factors are associated with severe xerostomia including older age, advanced stage disease and tumor location. Currently, no pragmatic treatment strategy exists to reduce the risk of radiation-related xerostomia in patients with head and neck cancer. We propose the use of a botulinum neurotoxin injected into the at-risk salivary glands before radiation as a strategy to preserve salivary gland function during radiation treatments and reduce xerostomia.
Marco Mascarella (JGH and MUHC) will lead an MUHC-JGH-SMH team including co-investigators, Michael Hier, Nader Sadeghi and Khalil Sultanem as well as collaborators, Alex Mlynarek, Keith Richardson, Christina Tsien, George Shenouda, Khashayar Esfahani, Cinzia Marchica and Stephan Probst.
Esophageal Cancer
Life After Esophagectomy: Predicting the Unpredictable
Esophageal cancer is not only the fastest rising cancer in Canada, but it is also very aggressive.The main treatment is esophagectomy, often in combination with chemotherapy or radiation. In the past, the main goal of this treatment was to increase survival. However, the complex treatments can have a profound impact on patients’ symptoms. Therefore, it is important that we not only consider duration, but also quality, of life. Currently, we do not have tools to predict a patient's quality of life after treatment. This would help our patients’ and healthcare providers select the appropriate therapy that matches patients’ expectations. We believe that we can create reliable models to predict quality of life after esophagectomy using an existing large database maintained by the McGill Program in Upper GI Cancers. This would be a major advancement in improving the health of patients with esophageal cancer and making health services more responsive to their needs.
Trafford Crump (MUHC) will lead an MUHC-JGH team including co-investigators, Lorenzo Ferri, Carmen Mueller, Jonathan Cools-Lartigue, Kim Ma, Joanne Alfieri and Sara Soldera.
Serious Illness Communication
Towards a Scalable Health System Approach to Advance Serious Illness Communication Training and Implementation
We're proposing a study to compare two ways to train healthcare providers in having important but difficult conversations with cancer patients. One method is well-tested, with an instructor leading the training, and the other uses virtual reality and can be done at any time. Because instructor-led training can be difficult to deliver to busy clinicians, our goal is to find out if the virtual-reality training method work as well to help clinicians feel confident and effective in these conversations. We'll also see how well they can integrate what they've learned into their daily work and how well they document these conversations for others to see. This pilot study will guide us in designing a larger trial to compare the effects of these training approaches on improving a critically important element of high-quality cancer care.
Justin Sanders (MUHC) will lead an MUHC-JGH-SMH team including co-investigators Sonia Skamene, Virginia Lee, Melissa Henry, Harvey Chang, Charles-Olivier Basile, Tanya Skamene, Jonathan Hudon and Dev Jayaraman as well as collaborators, Ari Meguerditchian, Laura Delany, Erik Fromme (Ariadne Labs) and Tibor Schuster (McGill).
Past Years
2022
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2014