Ontario-wide Cancer TArgeted Nucleic Acid Evaluation
Substantial progress has been made in the treatment of cancer through the use of targeted therapies, but what works for one patient might not work for another patient. Certain drugs are now being developed that target specific molecules in the body that are believed to be part of the disease. Biomarkers are specific characteristics of the cancer that may help provide prognostic information (e.g. how well patients will be regardless of the treatments given) or help predict sensitivity or resistance to a specific…
Conditions studied
Breast Cancer, Lung Cancer, Colorectal Cancer, Melanoma, Gynecological Cancer, Genitourinary Cancer, Pancreatobiliary Cancer, Gastrointestinal Cancer, Head and Neck Cancer, Rare Cancer, Unknown Primary Cancer
About this study
Substantial progress has been made in the treatment of cancer through the use of targeted therapies, but what works for one patient might not work for another patient. Certain drugs are now being developed that target specific molecules in the body that are believed to be part of the disease. Biomarkers are specific characteristics of the cancer that may help provide prognostic information (e.g. how well patients will be regardless of the treatments given) or help predict sensitivity or resistance to a specific treatment. The study will collect archival tumor samples (previously collected biopsy or surgical tumor samples) to provide biomarker data about a patient's cancer, which may help their physicians to identify which clinical trials of new drug treatments may be most appropriate for the patient in the future and may also guide the use of approved treatments that may potentially benefit the patient. Another goal of this study is to develop a province-wide registry of targeted gene sequencing testing results that will be made available to cancer researchers. Additional tumour tissue and blood samples collected from all study participants will also be stored in a biobank at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research for future research. The study will also look at linking data from this study to other health care databases to further collect information about the health care the patients received, including medical tests, clinic visits, or procedures both before and after participating in this study. Having more information about patient health to relate to the DNA sequences may provide new insights into cancer and its treatment.
Primary outcomes
- Number of patients included in a province-wide registry of NGS panel-based testing results (5 years)
- Change in use of NGS panel-based testing in Ontario clinical genetic testing laboratories (5 years)
- Number of patients included in province-wide repository of genomically-characterized tumour tissue and blood samples and their utilization rates for future research (5 years)
- Change in rates of genomics based clinical research in Ontario (5 years)
- Utilization rates of province-wide genomically-characterized and clinically-annotated patient base in enrollment into specific research initiatives (5 years)
- Utilization rates of molecular profiling information provided to treating physicians in guiding future treatment decisions (5 years)
Eligibility information
Study locations
- Juravinski Cancer Centre, Hamilton, Ontario Canada
- Kingston General Hospital, Kingston, Ontario Canada
- London Health Sciences Centre, London, Ontario Canada
- The Ottawa Hospital Cancer Centre, Ottawa, Ontario Canada
- Princess Margaret Hospital, Toronto, Ontario M5G 2M9 Canada
- Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, Ontario Canada
- Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, Ontario Canada
Source: ClinicalTrials.gov. Record last refreshed by Varda Clinical: 2026-09-30.