Open letter from the  Atlantic Cancer Consortium Patient Advisory Committee

As our funding cycle came to an end, we, the members of the Atlantic Cancer Consortium Patient Advisory Committee (ACC PAC), would like to say goodbye and share our accomplishments and outputs with the MOHCCN community.

Our committee consisted of 11 advisors who had lived cancer experience, a volunteer staff, a coordinator, a clinician-scientist, and a cancer scientist from Atlantic Canada.

Thanks to its diverse demographic and geographic representation, as well as the knowledge, skills, and backgrounds, the ACC PAC members uniquely tackled questions that concern people affected by cancer; connected and engaged with Atlantic Canadians via several public outreach activities; and created and disseminated both scholarly and public knowledge on cancer, cancer lived experiences, Precision Medicine, and more.

Since our inception in January 2024, the ACC PAC has:

1. identified patient priorities and published them in a peer-reviewed scholarly article (2025)
2. organized a Public Conference (2025) and two public webinars (2025; see here and here)
3. shared learnings that occurred while organizing the public conference in a second peer-reviewed scholarly article (2026)
4. presented its learnings and work in academic conferences (2024-2025)
5. had some of its advisors acting as team members in research projects
6. created a YouTube channel to post the conference and webinar recordings for public access (2025), and
7. reported back to the ACC and members of the public via several year-end reports, recaps, media articles and interviews (2024-2026)

We are currently working on our third manuscript.

These are massive accomplishments for a virtual team formed just over two years ago. None of these would have been possible without the interest and contributions of the ACC PAC patient advisors. Their dedication, interest, and perspective deserve special recognition and should not be forgotten.

Patient involvement and public engagement are relatively new fields for many people and research teams. We invite MOHCCN members to review our work.

We know that our funding may have come to an end, but our work as advocates will continue.

We hope that MOHCCN and the wider scientific community will continue to look for a cure while also engaging with public, integrating patient-voices into their research, and advocating for better conditions and support for the people affected by cancer.

Sevtap Savas, PhD. Lead, ACC PAC & Professor, Memorial University of Newfoundland

Georgia Skardasi, MSc. Coordinator, ACC PAC & Memorial University of Newfoundland

Stephanie Howlett, ACC PAC, Newfoundland and Labrador

John King, ACC PAC, Newfoundland and Labrador

Judy D. Whitty, ACC PAC, Prince Edward Island

Beverly Pausche, ACC PAC, Nova Scotia

Pauline McIntyre, ACC PAC, New Brunswick

Cyndi Corbett, ACC PAC, Nova Scotia