This project will develop, validate, and roll out an updated and expanded pharmacogenetic test panel that will predict the risk of 7 severe chemotherapy-induced adverse drug reactions (ADRs – also known as ‘side effects’) in pediatric oncology. This test panel is a practical solution for adopting and implementing a precision health strategy into pediatric oncology. This project will leverage the success of previous research that rolled out pharmacogenetic testing for 3 of these 7 chemotherapy-induced ADRs at 9 pediatric oncology academic health centres across Canada. To keep up with rapidly evolving pharmacogenetic knowledge, this project will expand the testing panel and evaluate its impact with clinicians, patients and their families in British Columbia and Alberta.
There are two critical project objectives: The first is to expand the current test panel to incorporate the discovery of new, highly predictive genetic markers for additional ADRs. The second is to develop a sustainability plan to move the implementation of these pharmacogenetic tests from research-based to standard of care testing used by clinicians in day-to-day practice, translating into widespread accessibility for patients and entrenching this testing into the health care systems in BC and Alberta.
The importance of providing patient-specific ADR risk information is two-fold: providing patients and their families with critical information about the risks of serious harm from chemotherapy compared to other children who are also receiving the same chemotherapy, and developing dialogue between parents and their clinicians to prepare for and mitigate those risks as much as possible.
In addition to this new expanded pharmacogenetic test panel, this project will also create an education program to facilitate the use of these tests in clinical practice and develop a sustainability plan outlining the necessary factors and projected timelines to establish pharmacogenetic testing at scale within the health care systems of both provinces beyond project end.
