Gerald C. Baines Centre for Translational Cancer Research
Overview
London Health Sciences Centre Research Institute’s (LHSCRI’s) Gerald C. Baines Centre for Translational Cancer Research is an 11,000 square-foot centre located at LHSC’s Victoria Hospital. It provides unique, leading-edge facilities to enable the care-changing work of cancer researchers and clinicians.
Expertise
The goal of the Gerald C. Baines Centre is to engage and support translational cancer research by linking researchers across London, Ontario from multiple disciplines with clinicians. It is intended to accelerate the translation of knowledge to clinical practice by providing an academic framework that spans existing units and institutions.
Building on London’s strength in cancer research and linkages between scientists and clinicians, interdisciplinary teams have developed in the areas of breast, head and neck, ovarian and prostate cancer. The Gerald C. Baines Centre facilitates knowledge transfer between teams to pursue research related to major treatment goals such as early detection, prevention, novel therapies and technology platforms with potential for patient application.
This vision includes an increased focus on sharing research findings with regional partners, including family physicians and community hospitals. The goal is to ensure that cancer patients throughout southwestern Ontario receive the highest quality of care regardless of where they live.
The Cancer Clinical Research Unit (CCRU) at London Health Sciences Centre Research Institute (LHSCRI) coordinates and supports protocol management and clinical/translational research projects that carry high impact for advancing cancer knowledge and patient care.
Located at the Verspeeten Family Cancer Centre at LHSC as part of the Gerald C. Baines Centre for Translational Cancer Research, the CCRU has extensive experience across a spectrum of clinical trial activities and offers the following services:
- Access to a large patient population across multiple disease sites
- Study design, protocol development and methodological advice
- Database development, support, and form design
- Management of ethics documentation, including initial submissions, amendments, and safety reports
- Completion of regulatory documentation
- Participant recruitment
- Case report form completion
- Long-term follow-up for adjuvant trials
- Design and maintenance of tumour bank and database projects
- Sample collection for pharmacokinetic studies
- Quality assurance
- Liaison with granting agencies, the pharmaceutical industry, and government
- National and international central databases
Our team excels in recruiting patients for numerous active trials, leveraging strong collaborations with cooperative groups and the pharmaceutical industry. We maintain rigorous quality control procedures and have pioneered an innovative patient assessment record adopted widely across clinical research programs. Our highlights include:
- Developing close collaborations with cooperative groups and the pharmaceutical industry;
- Implementing quality control procedures which have been validated by multiple external audits (cooperative group, industry, Food and Drug Administration);
- Developing and publishing an innovative patient assessment record (PAR) of treatment toxicities, widely adopted by other clinical research programs; and
- Participating in major studies that have improved standards of care.
The CCRU Team
Our dedicated clinical research team ensures the successful execution of research projects from start to finish. Team members include:
- Clinical research coordinators responsible for the organization, implementation, coordination, and documentation of clinical research projects;
- Clinical research associates and clinical trial research assistants who coordinate the follow-up phase for clinical trial participants, complete case documentation, and assist clinical research coordinators with the coordination of active research projects;
- Clinical trial activation coordinators who are responsible for ensuring regulatory requirements are complete;
- Data management coordinators who maintain central databases for provincial, national, and international multi-centre studies;
- A statistical database coordinator who creates data management systems to facilitate data collection and analyses of retrospective and prospective LHSCRI-based cancer research projects;
- An ethics regulatory coordinator responsible for initial and ongoing ethics approval submissions; and
- An administrative partner responsible for ongoing administrative support for all CCRU activities.
Contact
For more information on LHSCRI’s CCRU, please contact cancertrials@lhsc.on.ca.