In 1997, the US National Institutes of Health funded the Colon Cancer Family Registries, a consortium and research resource created to facilitate gene-gene and gene-environment studies related to the etiology, prevention and clinical management of colorectal cancer. The Ontario Familial Colorectal Cancer Registry (OFCCR) currently hosted at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbauem Research Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto is a member of this consortium, along with five other centres in North America and Australia: Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre (Seattle), Mayo Clinic (Minnesota), University of Southern California Consortium at Los Angeles (California), University of Hawaii Manoa (Hawaii) and University of Melbourne (Australia).

The OFCCR is a colon cancer family registry that collects personal and family health information and biospecimens (such as blood and tissue samples) from Ontario residents who are diagnosed with colorectal cancer.  Participants’ family members are also invited to take part in the study and asked to provide similar personal and family health information and biospecimens. The registry also includes people with no personal or family history of cancer and their data is used for comparison purposes in a variety of research studies.

As of 2013, we have completed three phases of recruitment and follow up for the registry.  There are currently over 2616 participants with colorectal cancer and 4761 family members participating in the OFCCR. This vast amount of epidemiologic, cancer information, family pedigrees and genetic data supports research on genetic forms of colorectal cancer and new preventive and therapeutic strategies to combat it.  The Ontario registry data are used for Ontario studies and also combined with data from the other five international sites of the consortium for large international research projects.  The registry is a valuable research resource and has already contributed to more than 200 peer-reviewed scientific publications.

We are now in phase four of the project where we are conducting 5 year, 10 year and 15 year follow-up with existing participants and their family members.

The Principal Investigator is:
Dr. Steven Gallinger, Head of the Hepatobiliary/pancreatic (HPB) surgical oncology program at Mount Sinai Hospital and University Health Network,  Chair of the Cancer Care Ontario HPB surgical oncology working group, Senior Scientist at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital and Professor of Surgery at the University of Toronto

The Co-Principal Investigator is:
Dr. Michelle Cotterchio, Senior Scientist, Prevention and Cancer Control at Cancer Care Ontario and Professor of Epidemiology at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health,  University of Toronto.  

If you would like more information or if you have questions regarding your participation, please contact Cary Greenberg, project coordinator at:

Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute
Mount Sinai Hospital
60 Murray Street, Box 31
Toronto, Ontario, M5T 3L9
Canada

Telephone: (416) 586-4800 Ext. 2759 or Toll-Free: 1-866-225-2728
Fax: (416) 586-8335
E-mail: OFCCR@ lunenfeld.ca