A growing Alberta Health Services initiative, the Tomorrow Project, is coming to the Cochrane RancheHouse Nov. 25-27, and the call is being put out for eligible Cochranites to take part in the mobile study.
The Tomorrow Project is Alberta’s largest cancer research study. The long-term project, with the help of volunteer study participants, will follow the health of Albertans between the ages of 35-69 for up to 50 years, tracking lifestyle and health changes through surveys, saliva, blood and urine samples.
In order to reach its goals, the study aims to re-enlist those participants who signed up from 2000-2008, as well as sign up new individuals in the communities the mobile study centre travels to.
Cochrane will be the 100th mobile study centre for the project, which is a milestone, according to study centre coordinator, James Whitworth.
“This is how we reach out all across Alberta. We don’t want to limit ourselves to just those living in Calgary,” he explained, adding that the mobile unit travels as far east and west as Lloydminster and Jasper, north and south as Fort McMurray and Pincher Creek.
The project has one permanent study centre in Calgary and one mobile unit. Combined, they are equipped to process some 350 participants weekly.
To be eligible, participants must be between 35-69 years of age and must never have been diagnosed with cancer.
“We tend to get a lot more women than men. In order to be representative, we really need men to come out and take part,” said Whitworth.
This will be the fourth trip the mobile study has made out to Cochrane, and Whitworth said there is certainly room for more participants – even if they need to do the study from home.
“We would prefer people to come in, if possible,” said Whitworth, adding that the mail-in option allows for people to complete the in-depth survey component, as well as provide a sample by using the saliva kit; ideally, those who participate in person can provide additional useful data, including blood and urine samples, as well as take part in a full physical.
He explained that the age pool of 35-69 is largely based on two factors: this is the range when most adult cancers develop and most people are settled by the age of 35, making the long-term nature of this project more feasible.
“One of the overarching goals of this project is to identify the factors that contribute to the development and prevention of cancer,” he said, explaining that since 2008, Alberta, B.C, Ontario, Quebec and the Atlantic Canada provinces joined forces to form The Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow Project – a national study that has allowed for improved collaboration and sharing of information.
This year, it is estimated that 6,100 people will die from cancer in Alberta and 16,200 new cases will be diagnosed.
Project sponsors include: the Alberta Cancer Foundation, Alberta Innovates Health Solutions, Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow Project, Alberta Health Services and Canadian Partnership Against Cancer.
To learn more please visit in4tomorrow.ca.
