Power of Precision Oncology: Experiences of Integrating Molecular Testing in the Clinical Management of Rare Cancers

Speakers

• Dr Harriet Feilotter
  

  Dr Harriet Feilotter

  Harriet Feilotter, PhD, FCCMG, FACMG
  Professor, Dept of Pathology and Molecular Medicine, Queen’s University
  Service Chief, Laboratory Genetics and Director, Molecular Diagnostics, Kingston Health Sciences Centre

  Dr. Feilotter is a Professor in the Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine at Queen’s University, where she maintains an active program dedicated to the assessment of methods for biomarker validation and to the transfer of clinically actionable molecular information to the clinical setting. She has a special interest in the integration of platforms designed to support studies of human biomarkers. Her roles as Service Chief of Kingston Health Sciences Center’s Laboratory Genetics and Director of the Queen’s Genomics facility allow her to focus on methods to bridge the gap between research and clinical application of biomarker findings.

• Dr Jaclyn Hechtman
  

  Dr Jaclyn Hechtman
• Dr. Martin Hyrcza
  

  Dr. Martin Hyrcza

  Dr Hyrcza is a molecular biologist and a pathologist. He has completed a combined MD/PhD program at the University of Toronto, after which he trained in anatomical pathology at the University of British Columbia. He then finished a combined Head and Neck / Endocrine Pathology Fellowship in Toronto. He is an assistant professor at the University of Calgary and is currently a consultant pathologist in Head and Neck, Ophthalmic, & Endocrine Pathology at the Foothills Medical Center and Rockyview General Hospital in Calgary. Dr Hyrcza’s research interest include molecular pathology of salivary and lacrimal gland tumours and squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck.

• Dr. Stephen Yip
  

  Dr. Stephen Yip

  Stephen completed his combined M.D-Ph.D. training followed by 4 years of neurosurgical training at UBC. He switched to neuropathology and obtained his Royal College certification in 2007. He completed fellowship training in molecular neuro-oncology at the Massachusetts General Hospital under the mentorship of Dr David Louis (RC Clinician Investigator Program) and molecular genetic pathology at MGH/Harvard Medical School under the supervision of Dr John Iafrate. He currently practices neuropathology at Vancouver General Hospital and is the directors of the Cancer Genetics & Genomics Laboratory and Centre for Clinical Genomics at BC Cancer. His research interests include dissecting the molecular pathology of brain and spine cancers, practical deployment of advanced diagnostic assays including panel- based and whole genome sequencing, and the application of deep learning as a practical diagnostic tool integrating glass- and genome- based pathology features. Relevant papers Levine AB, Schlosser C, Grewal J, Coope R, Jones SJM, Yip S. Rise of the Machines: Advances in Deep Learning for Cancer Diagnosis. Trends in Cancer. Doi: 10.1016/j.trecan.2019.02.002. 2019. Wong D, Lounsbury K, Lum A, Song J, Chan S, LeBlanc V, et al. Transcriptomic analysis of CIC and ATXN1L reveal a functional relationship exploited by cancer. Oncogene. 2018. Wong D, Yip S. Machine learning classifies cancer. Nature. 2018;555(7697):446-7. Tarpey PS, Behjati S, Young MD, Martincorena I, Alexandrov LB, Farndon SJ, et al. The driver landscape of sporadic chordoma. Nat Commun. 2017;8(1):890. Yip S, Butterfield YS, Morozova O, Chittaranjan S, Blough MD, An J, et al. Concurrent CIC mutations, IDH mutations, and 1p/19q loss distinguish oligodendrogliomas from other cancers. J Pathol. 2012;226(1):7-16.