CCMB Services

CancerCare Manitoba’s Department of Epidemiology and Cancer Registry is dedicated to providing support to investigators interested in using health information from the Manitoba Cancer Registry, as well as other linkable data sources. The Department has knowledgeable and skilled staff who can work with health researchers.

The Department can provide the following services:

• Pre-data collection database development and maintenance.
• Submissions and statistical analysis plans (for projects impacting the Department).
• Analytical services.

Individuals or groups seeking information please submit an email to epi.cancerregistry@cancercare.mb.ca.

Please provide the following information in your email:

• Name
• Affiliation
• Email/Contact Information
• Advisor (if a student or trainee)
• Project title
• Brief description of the project or information request
• Best times to meet (if a meeting is required)
• Deadline date

If you have any questions about this process or the services the department provides, please email epi.cancerregistry@cancercare.mb.ca. We will do our best to meet all reasonable deadlines.

Nurses of the chemotherapy treatment room at CancerCare Manitoba provide cancer treatment and supportive care to approximately 100 patients daily.

If participants enrolled in the study will need:

• Intravenous chemotherapy or medications to be administered
• Insertion of a venous access device (PICC), access from or care of a central venous access device
• Apheresis
• Phlebotomy
• Intravenous hydration
• Blood product transfusion support

then you need approval from Chemotherapy/Supportive Therapy.

The Clinical Trials Unit (CTU) facilitates and coordinates clinical research in the areas of prevention, treatment, palliation, and quality of life. Data collected from our participation in national and international research has influenced the standard treatments used today. Through clinical trials, patients are provided with the opportunity to access state-of-the-art treatments and to raise the profile of CCMB as a significant contributor to the research being done worldwide.

Of the approximately 120 adult and pediatric clinical trials open to participate each year, the CTU enters an average of 300 new patients while continuing to follow thousands of participants in long-term follow-up. Clinical research conducted at CCMB incorporates studies offered through cooperative groups, pharmaceutical companies, and in-house research. Patients participating in these studies have access to some of the most innovative and cutting edge treatments, tests or prevention tools available.

The CTU has extensive experience across a spectrum of clinical trial activities, and offers the following services:

• protocol and consent development
• case report form design
• budget and contract negotiation
• management of ethics documentation, including initial submissions, amendments and safety reports
• completion of regulatory documentation
• screening patients for eligibility
• obtaining patient consent
• conducting patient evaluations
• case report form completion, data management

Questions, contact our main office (McDermot Ave) at 204-787-4156.

Will the Researcher Require Information Contained Within the BMT Registry?

• The BMT Registry falls under CTU's umbrella. If data is required from the BMT registry, CTU sign-off is required.

Is the Study Considered Translational Research?

• The CTU is responsible for training and supervising many of the research staff involved with the Translational Research Program.
• Please contact the CTU Manager to see if your project will affect CTU resources.

Do You Need Someone to Screen Patients for Eligibility?

• Pending a review of resource use and funding, the CTU may be able to assist in this area.

Do you Need Someone to Obtain Patient Consent?

• Pending a review of resource use and funding, the CTU may be able to assist in this area.

Do you Need Someone to Conduct Patient Evaluations?

• Pending a review of resource use and funding, the CTU may be able to assist in this area.

Do you Need Someone to Collect Patient Information?

• Pending a review of resource use and funding, the CTU may be able to assist in this area.

The CancerCare Manitoba Health Records Department manages patient health information as set out by the Personal Health Information Act of Manitoba. The Health Records Department is responsible for ensuring all patient hardcopy health records are kept secure, up-to-date, protected and accessible for patient care, administration, and research.

The Health Records Department supports research by providing investigators hardcopy with:

• Hardcopy health record retrieval services (chart on-premises and off-site charts).
• Resource capacity planning working closely with the researcher to accommodate required timeframes and dates.
• Liaison with File Control Clerks and Medico-legal Correspondent throughout the study duration.
• Study/audit area with computer service to review your research health records in a secure, protected area.
• Capacity to store a maximum of 800 hardcopy health records for all studies currently in progress.
• Capacity to pull 150 hardcopy health records per week for all studies currently in progress.

Our office is open Monday to Friday from 08:00 to 17:00 hours.

To obtain access to patient hardcopy health records, investigators must first receive approval from the CancerCare Manitoba Research Resource Impact Committee (RRIC). You will be required to:

• You must identify the start date, end date (or duration) of the study on your RRIC Submission Form. Upon expiry, you must submit an amendment request to the RRIC to extend your study duration.
• Once your study has been approved and you are ready to review hardcopy health records please contact Cancer Registry/Epidemiology to generate the list of required charts - epi.cancerregistry@cancercare.mb.ca. This list will be sent directly to Health Records.
• Health Records will contact you to make arrangements for chart review.
• Other questions to consider:
  • Will these charts be pulled for review once or several times? Note: Charts with multiple volumes, each volume is considered one pull.
  • If charts are off-site in storage, will you require these retrieved?
  • Do you have a study budget to off-set chart retrieval costs? (Average cost of $16.00 per chart)

CCMB Research Fees

Booking Workstations for Chart Review

Workstations in Health Records (ON 2092) are available to accommodate researchers' review of electronic and hardcopy patient charts on approved research studies.

Please contact File Control Services in Health Records to;

1. Advise of study approval or produce the letter
2. Coordinate the pulling of their approved study charts to allow for a timely review for the agreed date/time
3. To book a workstation in ON2101c, our study, research area

The workstations are available Monday to Friday 08:00 - 17:00 hrs.

To book a workstation, please contact the File Control Clerk at 204-787-4017.

Access to Electronic Records

For more information about how to access patient hardcopy health records for approved research purposes, contact the Senior File Control Clerk at (204) 787-4017.

The information provided here is meant to provide guidance and highlight typical information required as part of the submission process. By including this information, we can quickly review and identify any impacts resulting from studies.

• Will Health Records charts be required for the study? If the study is a retrospective review, Health Records charts will be required, while a database review or data extracted from a database for analysis would typically not require charts.
• If charts are required, how many will be required?  A study my require 200 charts, however charts will typically be provided in blocks of 50 since charts may needed in clinic and allows for a smaller reserve to be kept.
• Are charts required for patients that are deceased?  Our deceased patient charts are stored off-site to make space for active charts.  These charts have to be retrieved from storage and incurs a $16 per chart fee.
  
• When will the charts be required (start date)? If you don't know the start date, can you please provide two (2) weeks notice prior to the start of the study so Records has sufficient time to pull the charts, request the charts to be returned, or for deceased patients to obtain the charts from archival storage off-site.

The Hematology Laboratory at CancerCare Manitoba (CCMB) provides service to all patients under active care at CCMB and sees approximately 150 patients per day. If you require blood work as part of your study, special procedures such as a bone marrow aspirate and biopsy, or if you need to have samples shipped out, approval is required by the Hematology Lab.

For assistance with the use of new software, application or new technology, please submit a request to the Service Desk at 204-940-8500 or servicedesk@sharedhealthmb.ca.

The Provincial Pharmacy program at CancerCare Manitoba has an Investigational Drug Services (IDS) area, staffed by pharmacists and pharmacy assistants. These professionals ensure that vigorous clinical practice is followed for all clinical trial duties.

IDS staff assure that all drugs provided as part of a clinical trial are handled under Health Canada regulations. Services provided by IDS include ordering, receiving, completing accountability, dispensing and preparation, storage, and destruction of trial associated drugs. Trial related documentation is maintained and stored by IDS as per Health Canada regulations. IDS staff will liaise with the study investigators or sponsors as required. Prescription development and patient education may also be provided.

If you are working on a trial that may require pharmacy services please contact the IDS Pharmacy at 204-787-4359 to inquire about our services and fee structure.

The Provincial Pharmacy program maintains an electronic database of all restricted or non-formulary medication requests. The database will list the patient, prescriber, the requested therapy, and the outcome of the request.

If you have any questions about the database, please contact the Pharmacy Data Manager at 204-787-4263.

Preventative maintenance, calibration, or servicing of medical equipment

The Department of Medical Engineering may be able to offer this service to research groups provided they have expertise with the specific piece of equipment. Some equipment can be very complex and calibration or servicing of that specific device may only be possible if an individual has taken a formal training course. These training courses may need to be purchased by the owner of the equipment and subsequently taken by members of the Department of Medical Engineering to make calibration or servicing by this group possible.

Incoming inspection (electrical and CSA) of new medical device

This inspection ensures that electrical equipment conforms to federal and provincial regulations regarding the safe use of electrical equipment. All electrical equipment brought into CCMB must undergo this inspection by the Medical Engineering group.

Design or fabrication of devices

The Department of Medical Engineering has the capabilities and expertise to design and manufacture custom devices required by a research program.

Credentialing of radiation therapy techniques

The Radiation Therapy Physics group is responsible for testing the accuracy of new radiation treatment techniques. Some clinical trials require this testing to be performed and the results submitted to a standards committee before participating in the trial.

Submission of radiation therapy treatment data

The Radiation Therapy Physics group is responsible for overseeing the collection of patient-specific radiation therapy data required by clinical trials.

For researchers with questions, please contact Jeff Bews at 204-787 1804 or jeff.bews@cancercare.mb.ca

Approximately 100 nurses are working in at least 15 different DSG clinics at CancerCare Manitoba (CCMB), St. Boniface and MacCharles Units. Nurses are key contributors to the implementation of cancer treatment, support for patients and families, and are integral members of the care team.

Please obtain approval if you need nurses to be involved in your study such as:

• informing patients about a study and assisting with recruitment
• facilitating CCMB space for research to take place
• handing out letters of invitation
• filling out a survey
• being active participants in the study

Patient and Family Support Services operate within the provincial mandate of CancerCare Manitoba and is a multidisciplinary team of professionals working together to help meet the social, emotional, nutritional, informational, psychological, spiritual, rehabilitation, and practical needs of those affected by cancer and their families throughout the diagnostic, treatment, and follow-up phases of their cancer care. These support services encompass issues of prevention, survivorship, recurrence, palliative care, and bereavement.

Patient and Family Support Services include six distinct services: Psychosocial Oncology (including Spiritual Care), Nutrition Services, Rehabilitation Services (Speech-Language Pathology), Breast Cancer Centre of Hope, Patient and Family Resource Centre, and the Guardian Angel Caring Room.

Services are provided at the MacCharles Site (675 McDermot Avenue) and St. Boniface Site. 

We encourage investigators to consider collaborating with staff within Patient and Family Support Services if their research involves one of these specialty areas of cancer care.

CancerCare Manitoba’s Patient and Family Support Services supports research by:

• Collaborating on research studies
• Recruiting patients and families
• Providing counseling support to study participants who may feel anxious, upset or distressed as a result of participating in a research study.

If it is anticipated that patients and or families may feel anxiety or emotional distress as a result of participation in a study, or, if anxiety or emotional distress might be uncovered through participation in a study, it is recommended that the following paragraph be included in the information for study participants. Sign off from the Director of Patient and Family Support Services will also be required.

Participation in this study may be distressing to you as you recall your own cancer experience or the experience of your family member. If you would like to talk to someone, there is support available through CancerCare Manitoba Patient and Family Support Services. Please call 204-787-2109 or toll-free 1-800-561-1026, or ask the research study staff to refer you.

Radiation Therapy treatment planning uses images from the CT Simulator to design treatment plans, using a treatment planning computer, that will deliver a prescribed dose of radiation following a Radiation Oncologist's prescription to a defined target volume and to consider and limit the dose to normal structures (organs at risk, or OARs). 3D or IMRT treatment techniques are used to design the plans. Radiation Therapy treatment is delivered using highly sophisticated equipment and involves a high degree of accuracy. During radiation, medical imaging is used to ensure the patient is in the correct position for every treatment.

CancerCare Manitoba operates three provincial, population-based, organized screening programs: BreastCheck, CervixCheck, and ColonCheck.

BreastCheck provides screening mammography to women 50 years of age and older. The BreastCheck registry includes information on mammography results, follow-up tests, and final diagnoses.

CervixCheck operates a registry of all Pap test results, colposcopy, and biopsy procedures, and HPV vaccination for women 18 to 69 years of age.

ColonCheck provides fecal occult blood tests to men and women 50 to 74 years of age. The ColonCheck registry includes the results of the FOBT, follow-up tests (colonoscopy), and final diagnoses. The programs also provide health promotion and education for the public and health care professionals.

For questions about the screening programs, please contact Laura Coulter, CCMB Screening Programs Manager, at 204-788-8084