Research Strategic Plan

Transcription

1 PCC Research Strategic Plan

2 Acknowledgements Prostate Cancer Canada would like to acknowledge the Research Advisory Panel for providing input and guidance in the development of this Strategy. The Panel was composed of: Dr. Laurence Klotz (Chair) Dr. Shabbir Alibhai Dr. Armen Aprikian Dr. Glenn Bauman Dr. David Bell Dr. Robert Bristow Dr. Michael Brundage Dr. Kim Chi Dr. Joseph Chin Dr. Kerry Courneya Dr. James Davie Dr. Joyce Davison Dr. Bryan Donnelly Dr. Urban Emmenegger Dr. Aaron Fenster Dr. Neil Fleshner Dr. Yves Fradet Dr. Martin Gleave Dr. Larry Goldenberg Dr. Masoom Haider Dr. John Lewis Dr. Andrew Loblaw Dr.John Oliffe Dr. Marie-Élise Parent Dr. Tom Pickles Dr. Michael Pollak Dr. Fred Saad Dr. Robert Siemens Dr. Gurmit Singh Dr. Jeremy Squire Dr. Ian Tannock This report was prepared by Dr. Stuart Edmonds, Senior Vice-President Research, Prostate Cancer Canada and reviewed by PCC colleagues: Susan Graham Walker, Dr. Josée Guimond, Janice Quirt and Rebecca von Goetz.

3 Forward Since 2008, Prostate Cancer Canada has been focused on its vision to be a global leader in the fight against prostate cancer, earning the enthusiasm and support of Canadians through integrity, compassion and innovation. We understood the situation we were facing prostate cancer, although the equivalent to breast cancer in incidence rates, lagged far behind other diseases in terms of funding and programs. In 2008, the fight was a fragmented one, with very effective, but small regional organizations waging the battle without a common bond. There were many support groups in most parts of Canada, but they acted independently, and without progressive programs and services to assist them on their prostate cancer journey. PCC created a tie logo that has become a symbol of hope - that we know we will achieve the goal of eliminating prostate cancer, and a symbol of unity that we can only achieve this when working together. Our goals are to support research that will ultimately find a cure, to uncover better diagnostic and treatment options and to provide comprehensive support for those living with prostate cancer. PCC is very grateful to thousands of Canadians who have joined our cause. Thanks to their support of Movember, the Father s Day Walk Run, our Wake-Up Call breakfast series, direct mail and hundreds of community events in every province in Canada, PCC is now positioned to fund the best in research and survivorship programs. Steve Jones President & CEO PCC Research Strategic Plan

4 Background Purpose Prostate cancer continues to be the most common cancer to affect Canadian men. An estimated 26,500 new diagnoses will be made this year in Canada, with 4,000 men predicted to die of prostate cancer. With prostate cancer, incidence and mortality rise with increasing age. This happens more rapidly with prostate cancer than with any other cancer. As prostate cancer typically progresses slowly, many Canadian men and their families struggle with the physical and emotional stresses resulting from the complications of the disease and/or treatment, as well as fear. Significant progress has been made over the past few years to improve our understanding of prostate cancer. Many of these findings have resulted in improved methods to detect and treat the disease. However, there is still much to understand about the topic, including: What is the exact cause of prostate cancer? How can it be detected earlier? How can prostate cancer be treated more effectively and with fewer side effects? How can men and their families be better supported throughout their prostate cancer journey? Continued research efforts are important in all of these areas to provide the necessary evidence to improve prevention, detection, treatment and survivorship. This document outlines key strategic priorities for research for Prostate Cancer Canada (PCC) as well as the research programs that will be launched to make advances in these areas as quickly as possible. PCC Vision for Research To establish programs to support research that will have the greatest potential to improve prostate cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment and to better manage survivorship. PCC Research Strategic Plan

5 Planning Process Development of the PCC Research Strategy began with the recruitment of a Research Advisory Panel ( Research-Advisory-Panel). The role of the Panel was to evaluate and review the results of the environmental scan and gap analysis. The Panel was then charged with using this information to provide advice to PCC staff on priority areas for research and to make recommendations for new research programs. The Panel was made up of research leaders who collectively represented the entire spectrum of prostate cancer research and each geographical region of the country where prostate cancer research is being conducted. A subgroup of the Panel served as the Steering Committee to allow for more direct and timely input. To inform priority setting, an environmental scan was conducted to capture the majority of investments made in prostate cancer research in Canada between 2005 and 2011 by the leading cancer research funding agencies from the federal and provincial government and the charitable sector ( PCC Environmental Scan.pdf ). In addition, surveys were launched to gain the perspectives of prostate cancer researchers in Canada and the opinion of prostate cancer patients, survivors, their family members and interested members of the public ( PCC Report of Online Surveys.pdf ). PCC Research Strategic Plan

6 Research Strategy This strategic plan lays out the focus of PCC s research program over the next three years. The goals of the strategy are to: Principles 1. Outline investments in prostate cancer research that will have the greatest impact on the disease 2. Develop innovative programs that build and sustain an outstanding Canadian prostate cancer research community 3. Train and help retain the next generation of prostate cancer research leaders The following principles are being applied in the development of the strategy. The strategy will: 1. Build on and leverage existing prostate cancer research projects and infrastructure in Canada 2. Establish rigorous peer-review processes to ensure only the highest-quality research is supported 3. Provide opportunities for provincial, national and international partnerships by being informed by the CCRA Pan-Canadian Cancer Research Strategy 4. Develop robust evaluation indicators to assess performance of programs and the overall strategy 5. Respond to opportunities that arise in prostate cancer research 6. Achieve results that strengthen the ability to raise additional funds for research PCC Research Strategic Plan

7 Priority Areas From the environmental scan, the findings of the researcher and the public survey, and the consultation with the Research Advisory Panel, it became apparent that a number of key issues should be considered when developing the strategy: 1. Continued emphasis on investigator-initiated research funding: While there was general support for targeting funding to specific areas of prostate cancer research, most researchers favoured the majority of funding going to investigator-initiated programs 2. Ongoing need for project funding in prostate cancer in Canada. In fact, 90% of researchers indicated this need 3. Broadened research scope: PCC has tended to focus on basic biomedical, translational and clinical research in the past. The view of many researchers was that important areas of prostate cancer research were being neglected and that PCC should broaden its scope and consider funding across the entire spectrum of prostate cancer research from prevention to palliative care. Through review of the companion documents and subsequent advice from the Research Advisory Panel, the following three priority areas have been identified. PCC Research Strategic Plan

8 Innovative Research Innovation must continue to be the main driver of prostate cancer research in Canada to develop novel ways to prevent, diagnose and treat prostate cancer and better manage the issues experienced by men and their families as they go through their prostate cancer journey. Research must demonstrate that it will add to existing knowledge of prostate cancer and will have an impact on the disease. All research supported by PCC will be subject to a rigorous peer-review process to ensure it meets an international standard of research excellence. Team Science As more information is being generated about prostate cancer, the complexity of the field is increasing. This places a greater emphasis on establishing large multidisciplinary research teams that are able to view and tackle the complex issues from many perspectives. The researcher survey indicated that collaboration was the greatest strength of the Canadian prostate cancer research community. In order to make a significant difference in cancer research as a whole, it is imperative that scientists and clinicians continue to be encouraged and supported to work collaboratively. While emphasizing the value of collaboration between different disciplines, it is important to appropriately recognize contributions of individual researchers to team science both in their institutions and by peer review committees of funding agencies. Talented People Responses from the researcher survey suggested the need to continue to invest in building human capacity in prostate cancer research. Comments focused particularly on training the next generation of researchers and new independent investigators. Strengthening the researcher community could be successfully achieved by attracting researchers from other disease areas, supporting new experts in current gap areas or providing research trainees with a multidisciplinary training environment to optimize their success in developing their own research programs. Pursuing these strategies will ultimately increase our ability as a country to generate and apply new knowledge that will have both a local and global impact on the disease. PCC Research Strategic Plan

9 Implementation Evaluation Evaluation will be a key component of the Research Strategy implementation. It will determine if the strategy is having the intended impact over the short, medium and long term. An evaluation aspect applied to every program will also assess whether individual programs are appropriate and continue to meet the needs of all stakeholders (funders, donors, researchers, survivors, etc.). Amendments to programs based on these evaluations will enhance their value. To evaluate the impact of the research strategy, key performance indicators for each program and activity will be developed. For a given program, these indicators will be defined as such: Short term (within 5 years) Medium term (5 to 10 years) Long term (10 plus years) In addition, each grantee and awardee will be asked to demonstrate how their work will improve knowledge about prostate cancer prevention, diagnosis, early detection, treatment and survivorship. Overall progress in prostate cancer research at both the level of the project and the program will be monitored and the contribution of PCC funding to achievements in improving patient care will be publicized. Working with Movember and its Men s Health Partners in other jurisdictions, PCC will identify and adopt common indicators to aid in the assessment of our collective global impact on prostate cancer. PCC Research Strategic Plan

10 Programs The Research Advisory Panel has identified a suite of programs as the most effective mechanisms to address the priority areas specified. They take into account: The prostate cancer research environment where there are gaps in funding in which PCC can achieve maximum impact without duplicating existing efforts Feedback from researchers with respect to types of pro grams, the balance between open and targeted priorities, and the importance of existing PCC competitions Where researchers and the public perceived that important gaps in knowledge exist, respecting existing initiatives funded by PCC and other agencies New and enhanced research programs will be launched over the next year. Additional programs in survivorship research and practice will be developed through a different mechanism and will be launched shortly. Sharing Research Findings PCC encourages all supported researchers to take opportunities to present their PCC funded work to colleagues at conferences such as the CCRA Canadian Cancer Research Conference, the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting and the American Society for Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting. In addition, PCC believes that research findings should ultimately be accessible to all. Therefore, all researchers supported by PCC will be required to make public the results of PCC-funded research. Finally, researchers supported by PCC will be expected to help promote their research findings to the public through media, the PCC website and other forums. PCC Research Strategic Plan

11 Organizational Excellence PCC aims to be a leader in research funding, applying innovative and efficient mechanisms and processes to provide attractive funding opportunities for prostate cancer researchers. It is important to adequately balance the requests of applicants with the burden of reviewers ensuring that the application process is lean and efficient while still providing the salient information to allow the discrimination between applications. Advisory Mechanisms An advisory council will be assembled that will counsel PCC Staff on research strategy and investments, the peer review process and scientific and administrative policies. It will comprise prominent prostate cancer researchers from across Canada. Collectively the council will represent all areas of prostate cancer research. Additionally, representatives of the non-scientific, patient or survivor community will be invited to serve on the council. PCC will also engage the broader prostate cancer research community for advice and input when necessary. PCC Research Strategic Plan

12 Prostate Cancer Canada Toronto, ON M5C 1M1 For more information on prostate cancer, please contact: Tel: Toll-free: prostatecancer.ca Charitable Registration Number: BN RR0001