A research team co-led by Techna Director Dr. David Jaffray has been chosen to join the Quantitative Imaging Network (QIN). Established by the National Institutes of Health, the QIN aims to promote the research and development of medical imaging methods, streamline imaging research by pooling resources amongst its members and reach consensus on best practices with the overall goal of facilitating clinical decision making in cancer medicine. The consortium consists of 21 research teams across the United States, which will now be joined by two Canadian groups, one of which will be led by Dr. Jaffray.
Dr. Jaffray is the Head of Radiation and Imaging Physics at the PM Cancer Centre. His team, in collaboration with Dr. Ting-Yim Lee’s team at the Lawson Health Research Institute, will develop an image-based approach to examine oxygen levels within tumours. Tumour hypoxia, in which tumour cells are deprived of oxygen, is an important factor that affects how well patients will respond to certain treatments. By measuring the degree of tumour hypoxia through novel image-based approaches, cancer patients that are predicted to not respond well to certain therapies can be identified and enrolled in clinical trials of hypoxia-targeting treatments. The QIN members, including UHN, will help develop the imaging methods and standards needed for cancer patients in Canada and around the world.
In partnership with Genome British Columbia, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research will support the Canadian projects joining the QIN cancer imaging program by committing almost $4 million in funding.
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