Several of Montreal’s hospitals and research centres are teaming up in the fight against cancer.
On Thursday, the Montreal Cancer Consortium, which is composed of the MUHC, CHUm and the Jewish General Hospital, announced a two-year pilot project which will see the facilities combining data and resources.
Combined, the hospitals are treating roughly 18,000 cancer patients and the project will see them collecting data on how some of those patients respond to immunotherapy treatment.
Immunotherapy treats cancer by boosting a patient’s immune system and much of the consortium’s research will be aimed at determining why some patients respond to the treatment and others don’t, said co-director John Stagg.
“We’ve identified cohorts of patients that are being given immunotherapy and will collect tumor samples and specimens like blood at different time points in treatment to better understand how the immune system reacts to treatment,” he said.
Stagg said that after the pilot project is completed, the consortium hopes to expand the project province-wide.
