In this section, we will post announcements, recent activities, and success stories. Check back for more info soon!
Welcome!
Welcome to the Clinical Trials Department website! This website has been in the works for quite some time and we are very pleased to share it with you. We would like to thank everyone involved in its development:
We hope this website serves you well and keeps you informed!
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April 2020
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many of our trials have been temporarily put on hold to recruitment. We will continue to update our trial list monthly to bring you the most up-to-date information.
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November 2019
Our clinical trials information session on Tuesday October 29th, 2019 at Wellwood was a great success! Thanks to all who came out to learn a little bit more about clinical trials. We look forward to hosting this event again in 2020!
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September 2019
Join us on Tuesday October 29th, 2019 to learn more about some of the research going on at the JCC. Dr. Rosalyn Juergens, Medical Oncologist and Head of the Clinical Trials Department, will start the conversation on the importance of clinical trials and the impact on the lives of patients and their families. The clinical trials team and several oncologists will be happy to chat with you about their areas expertise and can answer any questions you may have about trials.
This free event will take place from 7-8:30pm at Wellwood, 501 Sanatorium Road, Hamilton, ON, L9C 0C3. For more information about Wellwood, visit www.wellwood.ca
You can find the event on Eventbrite.ca. Registration is not required but is recommended.
Light refreshments will be provided.
There is free parking in the onsite parking lot. Wellwood is on the bus route for the Sanatorium Bus and a short walk from the Mohawk bus.
We look forward to seeing you there for this innovative and empowering dialogue!
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July 2019
After many years, we have just recently opened a new clinical trial for Sarcoma. The DCC-2618-03-002 study is looking at a new drug, DCC-2618, versus sunitinib in patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumours (GIST) after receiving treatment with imatinib. The first patient was just recruited to this study by Dr. Kevin Zbuk and Sandra! For more information, please visit our Find a Trial page or Contact Us.
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March 2019
Congratulations to Dr. McWhirter and Robin for recruiting the first patient to the CDRB436F2410 study! This is a study of dabrafenib and trametinib for patients with BRAF V600 mutation-positive melanoma. For more information, please visit our Find a Trial page or Contact Us.
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November 2018
Congratulations to Dr. Whelan and Juliet for recruiting the first patient in Canada to the MA.39 study! This is a randomized study of regional radiotherapy in biomarker low risk node positive breast cancer. For more information, please visit our Find a Trial page or Contact Us.
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October 2018
Our website videos are back online! You can once again view them from the Home page or through the Videos link.
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July 2018
Our website videos are currently down and we are working to have them up and running again shortly!
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January 2018
Happy New Year! We are starting 2018 with some great news! Congratulations to Dr. Som Mukherjee and our clinical trials nurse, Diane, for making the JCC the top recruiting cancer centre for the WO30070 study in all of Canada! This is a trial for patients with untreated bladder cancer that is locally advanced or metastatic (cancer that has spread around the tumour or to other areas of the body). The purpose of this study is to determine the effectiveness of the drug atezolizumab when given with standard of care chemotherapy. For more information, please visit our Find a Trial page or Contact Us.
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November 2017
Congratulations to Dr. Oren Levine and our clinical trials nurse, Robin, for enrolling the first patient on MK-3475-590 in all of Canada! This is a trial for patients with locally advanced or metastatic esophageal cancer (cancer that has spread around the tumour or to other areas in the body). The purpose of this trial is to determine the safety and effectiveness of immunotherapy when given with standard of care treatment. For more information, please visit our Find a Trial page or Contact Us.
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September 2017
Congratulations, Gretta!
Our department is very pleased to announce that Gretta Hutton, a patient advocate for clinical trials, a member of the Canadian Cancer Clinical Trials Network (3CTN) Ontario Lay Rep Committee, and one of our featured patient videos, has been invited to attend the Canadian Cancer Research Conference Patient Involvement Program.
This conference, taking place in November in Vancouver, British Columbia, will involve presentations on some of the cutting-edge research taking place in Canada.
The Patient Involvement in Cancer Research Program is a new part of the conference this year. Over the course of four days, 15 patients, caregivers, and patient group representatives will attend conference presentations as well as sessions focusing on patient and public involvement. The program is intended to broaden their own understanding of cancer research and science and to teach the scientific community about the many ways that patients can help inform, support, and strengthen cancer research.
Congratulations, Gretta! We wish you all the best at this conference and know you will continue to do amazing work in clinical trial and patient advocacy.
For more information about this conference or the Canadian Cancer Research Alliance, please click here.
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September 2017
Weight Loss Program Aims to Pinpoint Role of Obesity in Breast Cancer
Our department recently opened a new study called MAC.20 which is a breast cancer study looking at the relationship between obesity and cancer recurrence. There is an article about this relationship and this study posted here.
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June 2017
JCC Regional Oncology Rounds celebrate Dr. Andrew Arnold’s steadfast career in clinical trials
The JCC held a special ‘Regional Oncology Rounds’ presentation recently to celebrate a 40-year career in cancer clinical trials. The JCC lecture theatre was filled to standing-room only with colleagues, staff, and residents on hand to celebrate the career of retiring medical oncologist and researcher, Dr. Andrew Arnold. Dr. Arnold’s presentation entitled, Retirement Rounds: It Doesn’t Always Go the Way You Expect! was a light-hearted reflection on his career as a physician and cancer clinical trials researcher. A pioneer in cancer clinical trials, Dr. Arnold shared stories and anecdotes about the formative years of cancer clinical trials in Canada, as well as a few lessons learned along the way.
Dr. Arnold’s early research focused on etoposide (a chemotherapy drug) and led to published articles in Lancet and Cancer Chemotherapy and Pharmacology — the first articles to be published on the subject. This was during the late 70s during his time at the University of Southampton, Southampton, England.
In 1982, Dr. Arnold emigrated to Canada to serve as the first medical oncologist in Newfoundland. Two years later, he was recruited to Hamilton. He developed the Medical Oncology Residency program and joined Dr. Mark Levine in the breast cancer clinic where he contributed to research that led to practice-changing treatments. In the mid-80s Dr. Arnold aimed his focus on cancer prevention and became the medical director of the newly formed Cancer Information Service. In 1992 the team moved into the present building, and Dr. Arnold became Head of Medical Oncology. Around the same time, he was a Principal Investigator on the JCC’s first Phase I trial. This study was jointly-conducted with MD Anderson, Texas and Charing X Hospital, UK. Later, he led JCC’s participation in the Phase III trial of trastuzumab (Herceptin) in patients with metastatic breast cancer. Hamilton was the third largest contributor of patients to this ground-breaking study.
In addition to his clinical trials research, Dr. Arnold has served as Head of the JCC Clinical Trials Department, a Scientist at the Escarpment Cancer Research Institute, and Chair of the Ontario Leadership Council of the Canadian Cancer Clinical Trials Network (3CTN).
Dr. Arnold will retire at the end of June and will proudly become a Professor Emeritus, Department of Oncology, McMaster University.
To view Dr. Arnold’s video on clinical trials, please visit our Videos / Testimonials page.
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May 2017
Congratulations to Dr. Elaine McWhirter and our clinical trials nurses, Robin and Diane, for randomizing the first patient on CO39262 in all of Canada! This is a trial for patients with metastatic melanoma (a type of skin cancer that has spread to other areas) with a specific mutation, called BRAF. Patients will be given the drugs cobimetinib and vemurafenib, as well as atezolizumab or placebo. This trial will help determine if the combination of giving 3 drugs has better outcomes for patients than giving 2 drugs. For more information, please visit our Find a Trial page or Contact Us.
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April 2017
Hamilton cancer patient first to get experimental lung cancer treatment
One of trials, called Sandpiper, was recently highlighted by the Hamilton Spectator! Dr. Rosalyn Juergens and our clinical trials nurse, Susan, were able to treat the very first patient with this trial’s new lung cancer treatment. The treatment on this trial consists of a cancer vaccine, an engineered virus, and immunotherapy. Click on the headline above to read more about this exciting trial!
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February 2017
A belated happy new year to you! We’ve had a lot of changes happen in our Clinical Trials Department over the last couple months. Dr. Andrew Arnold has stepped down as Head of the Clinical Trials Department, and this role has been taken on by Dr. Rosalyn Juergens. Welcome, Dr. Juergens!
Dr. Arnold will be giving a talk about clinical trials at Wellwood on March 14, 2017. Wellwood is a community-based, non-profit organization which provides information, programs and peer support to people who have received a diagnosis of cancer, as well as to loved ones, caregivers and healthcare providers. Wellwood regularly hosts various programs which are free of charge, including peer support groups, exercise courses, creative expression, meditation and relaxation, information and navigation, and educational lecture series.
You can visit the Wellwood website at www.wellwood.on.ca and you can read more about Dr. Arnold’s upcoming talk here.
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February 2017
The New York Times recently featured an article on a prostate cancer clinical trial which has just been published in the New England Journal of Medicine. 51 patients from the Juravinski Cancer Centre participated in this study. The results are very positive and show that men whose prostate cancer comes back after surgery are more likely to survive if, along with the usual radiation, they also take drugs to block male hormones.
Click here to read the New York Times article.
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November 2016
Congratulations to Dr. Elaine McWhirter and our clinical trials nurse, Theresa, for randomizing the first patient on ME.13! This is a trial for patients with metastatic melanoma (a type of skin cancer that has spread to other areas) looking at the duration of treatment. This trial will help determine whether continuous treatment or on-and-off (intermittent) treatment is better for patients. For more information, please visit our Find a Trial page or Contact Us.
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August 2016
Congratulations to Dr. Alejandro Torres-Trejo and our clinical trials nurse, Theresa, for screening and enrolling the first patient in Canada to the AbbVie M13-813 trial! This is a trial for patients with glioblastoma, a type of brain cancer, whose tumour has an excess of certain molecules called Epidermal Growth Factor Receptors. The drug used in this trial, ABT-414, sticks to these molecules and tries to destroy tumour cells by releasing a toxin directly to the tumour. For more information, please visit our Find a Trial page or Contact Us.
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June 2016
Hamilton study a “game changer” for prostate cancer treatment Juravinski Cancer Centre study halves the amount of radiation treatment needed
By Joanna Frketich, The Hamilton Spectator
A “game changer” study has concluded many prostate cancer patients need half as much radiation treatment as currently given. Read More
For more about the PROFIT trial, read the PROFIT results.
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May 2016
The Ask Me Campaign
The Canadian Cancer Clinical Trials Network (3CTN) is a pan-Canadian initiative to improve the efficiency and quality of clinical trials in Canada. This is done by creating networks – linking larger cancer centres (who are capable of offering many clinical trials options to patient) to smaller cancer centres (which may not be able to offer as many trials). The JCC is a Network Cancer Centre linked with Network Affiliated Cancer Centres at Cambridge Memorial Hospital, St. Jopseph’s Healthcare, and Walker Family Cancer Centre in St. Catharines.
Through these networks, the centres are encouraged to share ideas, promote trials, and help patients with cancer get access to clinical trial options closer to home.
The Ask Me Campaign is a new initiative developed in British Colombia and endorsed by 3CTN. It is an interactive and visual way to increase patient, family, staff, and physician awareness of clinical trials through the use of buttons, posters, resource cards, brochures, and information sheets. Our department will be reaching out to the various departments and groups at the JCC to promote this campaign in a fun and informative way.
This project will launch at the JCC in May – we hope it will give patients and families the tools they need to find clinical trials options that are right for them.
For more information, please visit the 3CTN Ask Me website.
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Congratulations to Dr. Louise Bordeleau and our clinical trials nurse, Lynn, for enrolling the first patient in Canada to the MA.36 clinical trial! This is a breast cancer trial using the drug olaparib versus placebo for patients with a specific gene mutation (BRCA). A formal letter of acknowledgement and congratulations was given to Dr. Bordeleau and Lynn from the sponsor of the trial, the Canadian Cancer Trials Group (CCTG).
For more information on this trial, please visit the Find a Trial page or Contact Us.
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