Windsor-Essex is expected to benefit from a major investment aimed at advancing cancer research and precision oncology. The federal government has announced $80-million into the Marathon of Hope Cancer Centres Network over four years, matched by the Terry Fox Research Institute and participating institutions. That brings the total investment to $160-million. The University of Windsor and Windsor Regional Hospital are part of the network, with their partnership supported by WE-SPARK Health Institute. Precision oncology uses information about the genetic and biological makeup of cancer cells to help doctors tailor treatments to individual patients with the goal of improving how effective treatments are while also reducing damage to healthy cells. The new funding builds on the first phase of the Marathon of Hope network, with Windsor researchers already involved in projects connected to the initiative. Dr. Dora Cavallo-Medved, Director of WE-SPARK Health Institute, says Windsor is the first community-based University Hospital Partnership to join the network. “That is important because most people in Canada who are diagnosed with cancer are in communities like Windsor. And so we now are becoming the model for how other communities like Windsor across Canada can participate and also can use precision oncology to help patients.” She says this is putting Windsor-Essex on the map in the Team Canada approach to cancer research and cancer care. “The future of cancer care is going to be precision oncology, but we need to build that network; we need to build the infrastructure, the tools. We need to get researchers together across Canada working collectively and also patients being part of that as well. And that’s essentially what the network is really about, is building that infrastructure across our country so that we’re all working together and moving in the same direction.” Dr. Cavallo-Medved says she was in Ottawa last week for the announcement. “That was very exciting, and being able to be there with the Terry Fox Research Institute, as well as the Terry Fox family, Darrell Fox was there as well. A very emotional and just powerful day.” Local organizations, including the Windsor Cancer Centre Foundation, Transition to Betterness, and the Cancer Research Collaboration Fund, have also supported cancer research connected to the network. The $160-million investment is expected to help expand precision oncology research across Canada while strengthening Windsor-Essex’s role in cancer research and potentially improving access to new treatments and clinical trials closer to home.
