Publications

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

2022

Global Biobank Meta-analysis Initiative: Powering genetic discovery across human disease

Authors: Wei Zhou, Masahiro Kanai, Kuan-Han H Wu, Humaira Rasheed, Kristin Tsuo, Jibril B Hirbo, Ying Wang, Arjun Bhattacharya, Huiling Zhao, Shinichi Namba, Ida Surakka, Brooke N Wolford, Valeria Lo Faro, Esteban A Lopera-Maya, Kristi Läll, Marie-Julie Favé, Juulia J Partanen, Sinéad B Chapman, Juha Karjalainen, Mitja Kurki, Mutaamba Maasha, Ben M Brumpton, Sameer Chavan, Tzu-Ting Chen, Michelle Daya, Yi Ding, Yen-Chen A Feng, Lindsay A Guare, Christopher R Gignoux, Sarah E Graham, Whitney E Hornsby, Nathan Ingold, Said I Ismail, Ruth Johnson, Triin Laisk, Kuang Lin, Jun Lv, Iona Y Millwood, Sonia Moreno-Grau, Kisung Nam, Priit Palta, Anita Pandit, Michael H Preuss, Chadi Saad, Shefali Setia-Verma, Unnur Thorsteinsdottir, Jasmina Uzunovic, Anurag Verma, Matthew Zawistowski, Xue Zhong, Nahla Afifi, Kawthar M Al-Dabhani, Asma Al Thani, Yuki Bradford, Archie Campbell, Kristy Crooks, Geertruida H de Bock, Scott M Damrauer, Nicholas J Douville, Sarah Finer, Lars G Fritsche, Eleni Fthenou, Gilberto Gonzalez-Arroyo, Christopher J Griffiths, Yu Guo, Karen A Hunt, Alexander Ioannidis, Nomdo M Jansonius, Takahiro Konuma, Ming Ta Michael Lee, Arturo Lopez-Pineda, Yuta Matsuda, Riccardo E Marioni, Babak Moatamed, Marco A Nava-Aguilar, Kensuke Numakura, Snehal Patil, Nicholas Rafaels, Anne Richmond, Agustin Rojas-Muñoz, Jonathan A Shortt, Peter Straub, Ran Tao, Brett Vanderwerff, Manvi Vernekar, Yogasudha Veturi, Kathleen C Barnes, Marike Boezen, Zhengming Chen, Chia-Yen Chen, Judy Cho, George Davey Smith, Hilary K Finucane, Lude Franke, Eric R Gamazon, Andrea Ganna, Tom R Gaunt, Tian Ge, Hailiang Huang, Jennifer Huffman, Nicholas Katsanis, Jukka T Koskela, Clara Lajonchere, Matthew H Law, Liming Li, Cecilia M Lindgren, Ruth J F Loos, Stuart MacGregor, Koichi Matsuda, Catherine M Olsen, David J Porteous, Jordan A Shavit, Harold Snieder, Tomohiro Takano, Richard C Trembath, Judith M Vonk, David C Whiteman, Stephen J Wicks, Cisca Wijmenga, John Wright, Jie Zheng, Xiang Zhou, Philip Awadalla, Michael Boehnke, Carlos D Bustamante, Nancy J Cox, Segun Fatumo, Daniel H Geschwind, Caroline Hayward, Kristian Hveem, Eimear E Kenny, Seunggeun Lee, Yen-Feng Lin, Hamdi Mbarek, Reedik Mägi, Hilary C Martin, Sarah E Medland, Yukinori Okada, Aarno V Palotie, Bogdan Pasaniuc, Daniel J Rader, Marylyn D Ritchie, Serena Sanna, Jordan W Smoller, Kari Stefansson, David A van Heel, Robin G Walters, Sebastian Zöllner; Biobank of the Americas; Biobank Japan Project; BioMe; BioVU; CanPath - Ontario Health Study; China Kadoorie Biobank Collaborative Group; Colorado Center for Personalized Medicine; deCODE Genetics; Estonian Biobank; FinnGen; Generation Scotland; Genes & Health Research Team; LifeLines; Mass General Brigham Biobank; Michigan Genomics Initiative; National Biobank of Korea; Penn Medicine BioBank; Qatar Biobank; QSkin Sun and Health Study; Taiwan Biobank; HUNT Study; UCLA ATLAS Community Health Initiative; Uganda Genome Resource; UK Biobank; Alicia R Martin, Cristen J Willer, Mark J Daly, Benjamin M Neale

The Global Biobank Meta-analysis Initiative is a collaborative network of 23 biobanks, representing more than 2.2M consented participants with genetic data linked to electronic health records. This collaborative effort will improve genome-wide association studies’ power for diseases, benefit understudied diseases, and improve risk prediction.

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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

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

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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2021

A large Canadian cohort provides insights into the genetic architecture of human hair colour

Authors: Frida Lona-Durazo, Marla Mendes, Rohit Thakur, Karen Funderburk, Tongwu Zhang, Michael A. Kovacs, Jiyeon Choi, Kevin M. Brown, Esteban J. Parra 

Researchers performed genome-wide association studies and meta-analyses to garner insight on regulatory mechanisms of hair colour variation and pigmentation biology. 12,996 genotyped CanPath participants were included in this study, along with their self-reported natural hair colour. The researchers fine-mapped significant loci throughout the genome, identifying multiple novel causal variants for hair colour.

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2021

Effect of Cognitive Reserve on the Association of Vascular Brain Injury with Cognition: Analysis of the PURE and CAHHM Studies

Authors: Romella Durrani, Matthias G. Friedrich, Karleen M. Schulze, Philip Awadalla, Kumar Balasubramanian, Sandra Black, Philippe Broet, David Busseuil, Dipika Desai, Trevor Dummer, Alexander Dick, Jason Hicks, Thomas Iype, David Kelton, Anish Kirpalani, Scott A. Lear, Jonathon Leipsic, Wei Li, Cheryl R. McCreary, Alan R. Moody, Michael D. Noseworthy, Grace Parraga, Paul Poirier, Sumathy Rangarajan, Dorota Szczesniak, Andrzej Szuba, Jean-Claude Tardif, Koon Teo, MBBCH, Jennifer E. Vena, Katarzyna Zatonska, Anna Zimny, Douglas S. Lee, Salim Yusuf, Sonia S. Anand, Eric E. Smith

This study sought to determine whether cognitive reserve lessens the correlation between brain injury and cognition. The researchers analyzed data from two population-based studies, including the Canadian Alliance for Healthy Hearts and Healthy Minds (CAHHM), comprising CanPath national and regional data. They found that brain injury and cognitive reserve are related to cognition, but higher cognitive reserve does not mitigate the harmful effects of brain injury.

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2021

Psychosocial factors and cancer incidence (PSY-CA): Protocol for individual participant data meta-analyses

Authors: Lonneke van Tuijl, Adri Voogd, Alexander de Graeff, Adriaan Hoogendoorn, Adelita Ranchor, Kuan-Yu Pan, Maartje Basten, Femke Lamers, Mirjam Geerlings, Jessica Abell, Philip Awadalla, Marije Bakker, Aartjan Beekman, Ottar Bjerkeset, Andy Boyd, Yunsong Cui, Henrike Galenkamp, Bert Garssen, Sean Hellingman, Martijn Huisman, Anke Huss, Melanie Keats, Almar Kok, Annemarie Luik, Nolwenn Noisel, N. Charlotte Onland-Moret, Yves Payette, Brenda Penninx, Lützen Portengen, Ina Rissanen, Annelieke Roest, Judith Rosmalen, Rikje Ruiter, Robert Schoevers, David Soave, Mandy Spaan, Andrew Steptoe, Karien Stronks, Erik Sund, Ellen Sweeney, Alison Teyhan, Ilonca Vaartjes, Kimberly van der Willik, Flora van Leeuwen, Rutger van Petersen, Monique Verschuren, Frank Visseren, Roel Vermeulen, Joost Dekker

This study aims (1) to test whether psychosocial factors are associated with the incidence of any cancer; (2) to test the interaction between psychosocial factors and factors related to cancer risk with regard to the incidence of cancer; and (3) to test the mediating role of health behaviors in the relationship between psychosocial factors and the incidence of cancer.

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2021

Examining the etiology of early-onset breast cancer in the Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow’s Health (CanPath)

Authors: Joy Pader, Robert Basmadjian, Dylan O'Sullivan, Nicole Mealey, Yibing Ruan, Christine Friedenreich, Rachel Murphy, Edwin Wang, May Lynn Quan, Darren Brenner

The objective of this study was to investigate relationships between modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors and early-onset breast cancer among the BC Generations Project, Alberta’s Tomorrow Project and Ontario Health Study. In this study, measures of adiposity, pregnancy history, and familial history of breast cancer are important risk factors for early-onset breast cancer.

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2021

Normal sex and age-specific parameters in a multi-ethnic population: a cardiovascular magnetic resonance study of the Canadian Alliance for Healthy Hearts and Minds cohort

Authors: Judy M. Luu, Catherine Gebhard, Chinthanie Ramasundarahettige, Dipika Desai, Karleen Schulze, Francois Marcotte, Philip Awadalla, Philippe Broet, Trevor Dummer, Jason Hicks, Eric Larose, Alan Moody, Eric E. Smith, Jean-Claude Tardif, Tiago Teixeira, Koon K. Teo, Jennifer Vena, Douglas S. Lee, Sonia S. Anand, Matthias G. Friedrich

Researchers sought to create a robust, reference value set for cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) parameters, and understand their relationship with age and sex in people without cardiovascular disease (CVD) history or risk factors. They were able to uncover a significant influence of sex and age on these parameters for use in clinical evaluations of CVD.

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2020

Diabetes, Brain Infarcts, Cognition and Small Vessels in the Canadian Alliance for Healthy Hearts and Minds Study

Authors: Hertzel Gerstein, Eric Smith, Chinthanie Ramasundarahettige, Dipika Desai, Philip Awadalla, Philippe Broet, Sandra Black, Trevor Dummer, Jason Hicks, Alan Moody, Jean-Claude Tardif, Koon Teo, Jennifer Vena, Salim Yusuf, Douglas Lee, Matthias Friedrich, Sonia Anand

The CAHHM study collected brain and carotid magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and two cognitive tests (DSST and MoCA) in a cross-sectional sample of 7,733 men and women. It was concluded that small vessel disease characterizes much of the relationship between diabetes and vascular brain injury. However, additional factors are required to disentangle the relationship between diabetes and cognitive impairment.

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