The Alberta Prostate Cancer Research Initiative (APCaRI) brings together a multi-disciplinary team of prostate cancer scientists, physicians, patients, healthcare employees and an international collaborative network together to positively impact the outcomes and quality of life of those living with prostate cancer by accelerating the translation of new research ideas from the laboratory to the clinic.
The Challenge
Prostate cancer is a significant health problem that is intensifying as our population ages. Representing 36% of newly diagnosed cancers in men each year and almost 10% of all cancer related deaths in men, the clinical management of prostate cancer places a considerable burden on our healthcare system and the patients who are diagnosed with this disease.
Many prostate cancers are diagnosed at an early stage in Alberta, yet our limited diagnostic tools prevent us from answering the simplest clinical question: Which prostate cancers require treatment? Which treatment will have the greatest impact? Not being able to definitively answer these questions lead to uncertainty for patients and physicians and ultimately results in a negative impact on the quality of life of patients living with prostate cancer.
Prostate cancer research during the past decade has resulted in many exciting new discoveries, yet few of these have made their way into the clinic for the benefit of patients. In particular, the development of biomarkers to diagnose and predict the outcome of prostate cancer at the time of screening remains the greatest unmet clinical need in prostate cancer. There has never been a more opportune time to tackle this need with a focused multidisciplinary effort.
APCaRI’s Multidisciplinary Research Team
The successful clinical translation of new technologies to the clinic requires a wide range of expertise. Our multi-disciplinary group of more than 200 prostate cancer scientists, physicians, trainees and healthcare employees from five leading Alberta health research institutions are working with an international collaborative network to achieve our translational research goals – to make a meaningful impact on health policy and the outcomes of patients living with prostate cancer.
Translational Prostate Cancer Research
Translational research transforms scientific discoveries arising from fundamental studies into clinical applications to improve outcomes for patients with prostate cancer. Members of this team will work together to employ innovative new technologies for biomarker discovery, detection and quantification that have been developed independently in internationally-recognized efforts in Alberta and bring them to bear on a common goal.
Alberta Prostate Cancer Registry and Biorepository
Clinical registries improve care by arming doctors and teams treating prostate cancer with information about how their outcomes compare with international standards and other locales. The Alberta Prostate Cancer Registry will allow us to monitor the patterns of care and outcomes of men diagnosed with prostate cancer throughout Alberta, and provide a valuable tool to track how our translational research efforts are impacting outcomes over time. The registry will be linked to a biorepository containing patient specimens that will drive translational research and enable personalized approaches to prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment.