Project Duration: 2012-2025

MOHCCN Consortium: BC Cancer Consortium.

Investigators: Drs. M. Marra, J. Laskin, S. Jones, D. Renouf, D. Regier, K. Schrader, S. Sun, H. Lim, S. Yip, R. Holt, S. Aparicio, N. Caron.

Partners: BC Cancer, Canada’s Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre.

 Project goals:

1. Prospectively enroll, collect and analyze samples from appropriately consented treatment-resistant longitudinal patient populations, including “gold standard” data elements.
2. Estimate survival outcomes, expenditures impact, and cost-effectiveness of WGTA for incurable cancers.
3. Expand and enhance opportunities for patients and for research activities in hereditary cancers.
4. Develop machine learning approaches that can identify tumour types, resolve “primary unknown” tumours, and align patients to therapies.
5. Describe the functional dynamic between the epigenome and the genome.
6. Perform experiments with application of single cell sequencing technologies to characterize the clonal dynamics of cell populations in both primary tumours and metastatic disease as well as organoids derived from selected samples.
7. Improve access to genomic precision medicine for patients across BC outside of the Vancouver area and in rural areas.

Summary:

POG is a world-leading research program that is using rapid, clinically deployed whole genome and transcriptome analysis of incurable cancers to identify and better understand genomic driver alterations and therapeutic vulnerabilities. The motivating hypothesis is that routine analysis of genomic, transcriptomic, clinical, and treatment data from incurable cancers will inform treatment planning across cancer types. The analysis of a breadth of malignancies is driven by the participation of approximately 80 percent of all medical oncologists in BC, with the support and participation of teams e.g. pathologists, radiologists, scientists, residents, research trainees, managers and study coordinators. To date, POG has analyzed cancers from more than 25 broad cancer types, which encompass 190 oncotree terms. POG has led to involvement in clinical trials and the publication of novel mutations and treatment strategies.