Genome Science, and the BC Cancer Agency Personalized OncoGenomics (POG) Project

About the 2017 talk

The BC Cancer Agency Personalized OncoGenomics (POG) Project. From the abstract Dr. Marra provided: “The application of ‘personalized’ or ‘precision’ medicine to oncology is a compelling concept based on the success of targeted agents in niche populations that express specific drug targets… In 2010, we reported the successful use of whole genome analysis to inform treatment planning for a rare cancer. This early experience, along with significant advances in technology, led to the launch of a POG pilot project in 2012.”

“The POG program has so far consented 768 patients (including 52 pediatric cases) and completed analysis of 470 patients and 50 different tumor types. In 80% of the first 300 pilot-phase patients, oncologists considered the whole genome analysis to be informative for treatment decision making, and the majority of the medical oncologists in the Province of BC have now enrolled cases in POG. Our focus now revolves around scaling the POG approach to benefit a broader segment of the cancer population in BC.” He returned in November 2020 for a second session on genome science at the BC Cancer Agency Genome Sciences Centre.

About the speaker

Director of the BC Cancer Agency Genome Sciences Centre and UBC Canada Research Chair in Genome Science; his team sequenced the SARS coronavirus genome in 2003, for which he received (together with the entire GSC staff) BC Biotech's Innovation and Achievement Award. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (2007) and member of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (2009), he holds honorary doctorates from Simon Fraser University and the University of Calgary.