The purpose of this call for white papers is to identify important questions / problems in treating Canadian cancer patients using precision medicine approaches across multiple centres that can be addressed over a three to five year time period.
Download the MOHCCN White Paper FAQ, here.
The Marathon of Hope Cancer Centres Network (‘MOHCCN’) is an exciting new program managed by the Terry Fox Research Institute (‘TFRI’) with support from the federal government. The MOHCCN’s mission is to bring together leading cancer centres across Canada to collaborate on precision medicine to benefit cancer patients and drive innovation.
Inspired by Terry Fox’s courage and dedication through his 1980 Marathon of Hope, for our initial program, the MOHCCN will generate and share molecular, clinical, and health outcomes data on Canadian cancer patients. The MOHCCN will operate on a partnership model, requiring investments and matching cash contributions to be made by all partners.
It is envisioned that the MOHCCN will: (i) unite cancer centres around a national cancer strategy in precision medicine by embedding research and innovation into the cancer clinic, (ii) share knowledge and resources to impact the health outcomes of patients, (iii) align investments of foundations and the pharmaceutical sector to match the federal investment to steer activities to benefit all Canadians, and (iv) position Canada as a global leader in cancer research.
Our initial program will create a shareable databank of 15,000 Canadian cancer cases focused on four key scientific questions.
After an administrative review from TFRI Staff, White Papers authors were contacted for their authorization to share their proposals with the Scientific Questions Working Group (SQWG) and collaborators.
The SQWG reviewed the White Papers with the mandate to identify up to 5 themes along with the development of review criteria for a Request for Applications.
The four emerging themes recommended and that have been endorsed through the governance structure by MOHCCN Network Council are:
| Theme No. | Theme | Example of Enablers |
| 1 | Mechanisms of drug resistance (targeted and immune therapy) | Multi-omic biomarkers, profiling of immune cells and characterization of tumour microenvironment, PDX, etc |
| 2 | Dynamic biomarkers, including minimally invasive testing, to evaluate disease kinetics and intratumoral heterogeneity | ctDNA assays, radiomics, multi-omic circulating biomarkers, etc |
| 3 | Prospective treatment assignment based on molecular/immune characterization | Precision oncology clinical trials, PDX/PDO to predict drug response/resistance, multi-omic correlative studies, etc |
| 4 | Understanding cancer biology of rare and understudies cancer subtypes | multi-omic evaluations |
The application submission deadline is December 9, 2022, at 5 pm PST. Applicants must submit the Full Application electronically before the deadline to the email address iserrano@tfri.ca.
The electronic document attached to the email must be either (1) a PDF formatted file, or (2) a Microsoft Word document (docx format). (3) The excel file – budget template, can be converted and combined to the PDF or sent separately as xls format.
Naming of Electronic Files: 2022 TFRI MOHCCN Pan-Can Project FULL APPLICATION –LAST NAME, First Name-Lead Site.docx’
A panel review will be completed. The awardees will be notified in March with a projected start of the funding on April 1st, 2023.
If you need further information or have other questions, please feel free to contact TFRI at iserrano@tfri.ca.