Publications

These publications are examples of research made possible with data from CanPath and its regional cohorts.

2023

Mental health, cancer risk, and the mediating role of lifestyle factors in the CARTaGENE cohort study

Authors: Kaitlyn Gilham, Anne Gadermann, Trevor Dummer, Rachel A Murphy

This study investigates the associations between depression, anxiety, and cancer risk and the mediating effects of lifestyle. Using data from 34,571 CARTaGENE participants, researchers found positive links between mental health disorders, all cancers, and lung cancer risk, except for anxiety and lung cancer in women, where associations were lower when adjusting for sociodemographics, health and lifestyle. The study also found that smoking affected the relationship between mental health disorders and cancer risk. Overall, the study suggests that lifestyle factors, like smoking, may be important in understanding the relationship between mental health and cancer risk.

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2022

The role of ultra-processed food consumption and depression on type 2 diabetes incidence: a prospective community study in Quebec, Canada

Authors: Akankasha Sen, Anne-Sophie Brazeau, Sonya Deschênes, Hugo Ramiro Melgar-Quiñonez, Norbert Schmitz

Researchers analyzed the association between depression and ultra-processed food (UPF) consumption as risk factors for developing type 2 diabetes (T2D) using baseline data (2009-2010) from 3,880 CARTaGENE participants. Participants with high depressive symptoms and high UPF consumption were at the highest risk for T2D. The study suggests that early management and monitoring of both risk factors could be essential for diabetes prevention.

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2022

Prediction of Cardiovascular Events by Pulse Waveform Parameters: Analysis of CARTaGENE

Authors: Louis-Charles Desbiens, Catherine Fortier, Annie-Claire Nadeau-Fredette, François Madore, Bernhard Hametner, Siegfried Wassertheurer, Mohsen Agharazii, Rémi Goupil

Researchers conducted the largest study to date evaluating non-invasive pulse waveform parameters’ association with cardiovascular events. By adding two waveform parameters to the existing atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease score, they improved cardiovascular prediction and reclassified up to 5.7% of patients in another risk category.

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2022

Harnessing the power of data linkage to enrich the cancer research ecosystem in Canada

Authors: Robin Urquhart, Philip Awadalla, Parveen Bhatti, Trevor Dummer, Simon Gravel, Jennifer Vena, Riaz Alvi, Philippe Broet, Cynthia Kendell, Victoria Kirsh, Guillaume Lettre, Kimberly Skead, Grace Shen-Tu, Ellen Sweeney, Donna Turner

This abstract discusses a project aimed at linking cancer registry and administrative health data to Canada’s largest population health study, the Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow’s Health (CanPath). The project seeks to enrich the cancer research ecosystem in Canada by providing researchers with a comprehensive dataset that includes genetics, environment, lifestyle, and behaviour data. The linked data will be made available through a cloud-based solution called the CanPath Data Safe Haven, which is accessible to researchers through secure access. The project will address concerns related to the accessibility of cancer data in Canada, bring more value to existing data, and support an enhanced understanding of the impacts of cancer on marginalized populations.

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2022

Analyzing cohort studies with interval-censored data: A new model-based linear rank-type test

Authors: Rodolphe Jantzen, Pascale Tubert-Bitter, Philippe Broët

When analyzing cohort studies with interval-censored data, the researchers suggest that statisticians employ their proposed test to test survival distributions’ quality between two or more groups.

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2022

Socio-Demographic Factors Associated With COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Among Middle-Aged Adults During the Quebec’s Vaccination Campaign

Authors: Rodolphe Jantzen, Mathieu Maltais, Philippe Broët

This study aimed to describe how socioeconomic and demographic characteristics affect vaccine hesitancy. Using data from 6,105 CARTaGENE participants, researchers found that those born outside of Canada and those with a household income under $100,000 had the greatest hesitancy.

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2022

Lifestyle factors and lung cancer risk among never smokers in the Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow’s Health (CanPath)

Authors: Rachel Murphy, Maryam Darvishian, Jia Qi, Yixian Chen, Quincy Chu, Jennifer Vena, Trevor J B Dummer, Nhu Le, Ellen Sweeney, Vanessa DeClercq, Scott A Grandy, Melanie R Keats, Yunsong Cui, Philip Awadalla, Darren R Brenner, Parveen Bhatti

Data from 950 CanPath participants were analyzed to understand why 15-25% of lung cancers occur in never smokers. Researchers found a link between lung cancer risk, sleep, and fruit and vegetable intake amongst never smokers.

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2022

Meta-GWAS Reveals Novel Genetic Variants Associated with Urinary Excretion of Uromodulin

Authors: Christina B. Joseph, Marta Mariniello, Ayumi Yoshifuji, Guglielmo Schiano, Jennifer Lake, Jonathan Marten, Anne Richmond, Jennifer E. Huffman, Archie Campbell, Sarah E. Harris, Stephan Troyanov, Massimiliano Cocca, Antonietta Robino, Sébastien Thériault, Kai-Uwe Eckardt, Matthias Wuttke, Yurong Cheng, Tanguy Corre, Ivana Kolcic, Corrinda Black, Vanessa Bruat, Maria Pina Concas, Cinzia Sala, Stefanie Aeschbacher, Franz Schaefer, Sven Bergmann, Harry Campbell, Matthias Olden, Ozren Polasek, David J. Porteous, Ian J. Deary, Francois Madore, Philip Awadalla, Giorgia Girotto, Sheila Ulivi, David Conen, Elke Wuehl, Eric Olinger, James F. Wilson, Murielle Bochud, Anna Köttgen, Caroline Hayward, Olivier Devuyst

This study is a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies to understand the mechanisms that regulate urinary excretion of uromodulin. Researchers identified two novel significant loci, providing insight into uromodulin’s biology, keratins’ role in the kidney, and the UMOD-PDILT locus’s influence on kidney function.

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2022

FGF23-Klotho axis and fractures in patients without and with early CKD: A case-cohort analysis of CARTaGENE

Authors: Louis-Charles Desbiens, Aboubacar Sidibé, Roth-Visal Ung, Fabrice Mac-Way

Researchers sought to assess the relationship between fibroblast growth factor-23 (FGF-23) and fractures, especially in chronic kidney disease (CKD). With data and biological samples from 312 CARTaGENE participants (153 with CKD), they found that c-terminal FGF-23 (cFGF-23) greatly reduced the relationship between CKD status and fractures.

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2022

Evaluation of Adiposity and Cognitive Function in Adults

Authors: Sonia S. Anand, Matthias G. Friedrich, Douglas S. Lee, Phillip Awadalla, J. P. Després, Dipika Desai, Russell J. de Souza, Trevor Dummer, Grace Parraga, Eric Larose, Scott A. Lear, Koon K. Teo, Paul Poirier, Karleen M. Schulze, Dorota Szczesniak, Jean-Claude Tardif, Jennifer Vena, Katarzyna Zatonska, Salim Yusuf, Eric E. Smith, the Canadian Alliance of Healthy Hearts and Minds (CAHHM), the Prospective Urban and Rural Epidemiological (PURE) Study Investigators

Researchers sought to undercover the association between adipose tissue (amount and distribution) and cognitive scores. Using data from 9,189 participants, they found that higher visceral adipose tissue and body fat percentage correlated with increased vascular brain injuries and cardiovascular risk factors, as well as lower cognitive scores.

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