Towards Equity in Precision Oncology: Co-designing Interventions to Address Disparities

Co-creating solutions to address racial disparities in cancer care

Racial disparities in cancer care have real impacts on health outcomes. To address this, a team of Toronto and Kingston-based researchers is receiving $200,000 in funding from the MOHCCN’s Patient Voices in Research Initiative. Led by Dr. Yvonne Bombard (University of Toronto), the team will focus on co-designing solutions to improve access to cancer genetic services for racialized communities in Canada. They will work directly with patients, clinicians and decision-makers, to help bridge the gaps in cancer care and develop practical, inclusive interventions to make precision oncology more equitable for everyone.

Read our Q&A with the research team to learn more about the project.

How would you describe your project to a lay audience?

Cancer is a leading cause of death in Canada, and genetic testing for populations that are high-risk is essential for prevention, early detection and testing for family members. Currently, there are big gaps in genetic services for racialized minorities, who are less likely to be referred for genetic testing and often receive unclear results due to a lack of ethnic representation in genetic databases. This lack of access and information leads to large disparities in medical care for minority groups, ultimately resulting in worse health outcomes. This project is essential to co-creating guidelines and interventions that address the needs of racialized individuals that are affected by cancer. 

What do you hope to achieve by the end of the project?

Drawing from our learnings through interviews with health-care providers and racialized communities about their experiences with genetic services, the aim of this project is to co-design interventions to improve access to cancer genetics services. The interventions will be designed in partnership with patients, members of racialized communities, clinicians and decision-makers to ensure they are inclusive, practical and equitable.  

Why is this project important? How does it advance precision medicine for cancer? What potential impact could it have on patients?

While it is well known that racialized individuals experience disparities in accessing cancer genetics services, there is little data on the specific experiences of minority groups in Canada. This project is fundamental to better understanding the ways in which racialized communities are underserved when it comes to cancer care, so that their unique needs can be addressed in our health-care system. Equitable access is especially important as we enter the era of precision medicine to ensure that our most vulnerable populations are not left behind. 

This funding opportunity was designed and adjudicated by members of the Network’s Patient Working Group, who are all cancer patients and survivors or caregivers and family members. Why do you think it’s important for the Network to fund this type of patient-centric research? Have you ever encountered a funding opportunity like this before?

Funding patient-centric research is critical because it allows us to directly address the needs of those affected by cancer. Cancer patients, survivors, caregivers and family members are at the core of this research project as part of the Equity Advisory Board and will help guide the creation of the interventions.  This unique funding opportunity highlights the value that patient partners bring to conducting research that is driven by the very community we aim to serve.