Project Assistant with the Tomorrow Project Jodi Sidhu, right, conducts an examination on a volunteer. Drumheller and area residents are being encouraged to become part of the Tomorrow Project and help researchers in the fight against cancer. The Project mobile study centre is at the Canalta Jurassic Inn until Friday, August 23.
Drumheller and area residents are being encouraged to help researchers determine the causes of cancer and other diseases through a long-term study.
Starting today and continuing to Friday, August 23, at the Canalta Jurassic Inn, the Tomorrow Project will be signing volunteers up to participate in a 50 year study aimed at determining the causes of different varieties of cancer or other diseases.
“We’re trying to make the rounds around the province once again. The Tomorrow Project is a cancer research project, where we hope to enroll 50,000 Albertans to learn the causes of cancer. We’re more of a prevention study. We want as large of a demographic as we can get,” said Melissa Ketler, operations lead for the Tomorrow Project.
The Tomorrow Project is looking for volunteers between the ages of 35 and 69, who have never been diagnosed with cancer. The study is long-term, with periodic checks.
“We plan to do continued follow up over the next 50 years or up to the age of 85. About every three or five years we’ll do a follow up questionnaire and, potentially, a blood sample,” said Ketler.
The first step is to answer a few basic questions, do a basic physical examination, and provide a DNA sample.
“Some of the questions we ask are related lifestyle, diet, and genetics. Depending on what questions the researchers are asking in their studies, it will be asked if our data is right for them,” said Ketler.
Once the Tomorrow Project has a large enough sample size, the data will be made available to researchers.
“We’ve had a few researchers so far that have requested our data. If we have a blood sample today and another in five years, we can compare them and try to determine why they got cancer and others did not,” said Ketler. “It won’t just be cancer, the data could be used to research other health conditions as well.”
Those interested in volunteering are asked to first call the Tomorrow Project at 1-877-919-9292 to book an appointment. Those who miss the Tomorrow Project while they are in Drumheller can still participate via a mailed saliva sample.
“If you’re ever going to participate in a research study, this would be the thing to do. It’s Alberta’s largest study ever conducted,” said Ketler. “The more robust our data is, the more information we can draw from that.”
