Data Working Group

Riaz Alvi is the Director of Epidemiology and Performance Measurement at the Saskatchewan Cancer Agency.  He is also an Adjunct Faculty Member with the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Graduate Studies. Riaz has worked at the Saskatchewan Cancer Agency for 19 years and as Director for the last 13 years.  His interests include; cancer surveillance, performance and outcomes measurement, patient reported outcomes, health equity, Real World Evidence, and cancer in indigenous populations.

Selected Publications

Beca, J & Dai, W & Yz, R & Tran, D & Dvorani, E & Isaranuwatchai, Wanrudee & Peacock, Stuart & Alvi, R & Zz, W & Earle, Craig & Gavura, Scott & Chan, K. (2021). Real-world Safety of Bevacizumab with First-line Combination Chemotherapy in Patients with Metastatic Colorectal Cancer: Population-based Retrospective Cohort Studies in Three Canadian Provinces. Clinical Oncology. 10.1016/j.clon.2021.08.009.

Pataky, Reka & Beca, Jaclyn & Tran, David & Dai, Wei & Dvorani, Erind & Isaranuwatchai, Wanrudee & Peacock, Stuart & Alvi, Riaz & Cheung, Winson & Earle, Craig & Gavura, Scott & Chan, Kelvin. (2021). Real-World Cost-Effectiveness of Bevacizumab With First-Line Combination Chemotherapy in Patients With Metastatic Colorectal Cancer: Population-Based Retrospective Cohort Studies in Three Canadian Provinces. MDM Policy & Practice. 6. 238146832110210. 10.1177/23814683211021060.

Tran, David & Coronado, A. & Sarker, S. & Alvi, R. (2019). Estimating Health Care Costs of Non-Melanoma Skin Cancer in Saskatchewan using Physician Billing Data. Current Oncology. 26. 10.3747/co.26.4557.

Reka Pataky, David A. Tran, Andrea Coronado, Riaz Alvi, Darryl Boehm, Dean A. Regier, Stuart Peacock.  Cancer Drug Expenditure in British Columbia and Saskatchewan: A Trend Analysis. CMAJO. July 27, 2018. Vol. 6, No. 3. E292-E299  doi: 10.9778/cmajo.20170161

Winson Y. Cheung, MD, MPH, FRCPC is a medical oncologist and a nationally and internationally recognized health services researcher and real-world data scientist. He is currently appointed as Full Professor in the Departments of Oncology, Medicine, and Community Health Sciences at the University of Calgary where he is also the Provincial Director of Health Services Research. Prior to his leadership recruitment to Calgary in 2017, he worked at BC Cancer in Vancouver for 7 years.

Dr. Cheung received his medical degree at the University of British Columbia, medical oncology subspecialty training at the University of Toronto and subsequently obtained a Masters of Public Health degree at Harvard University. He specializes in the management of gastrointestinal malignancies. He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including the National Cancer Institute of Canada Dorothy Lamont Award, the Canadian Cancer Trials Group Dr Ralph Meyer Award, the Novartis Oncology Canadian Investigator Mentor Award, and the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer Investigator Award. He has secured over 15 million dollars in competitive grant funding, including from CIHR and Canadian Cancer Society. He has also been invited to be a reviewer on national and international grant panels as well as a member on scientific program committees for the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the Canadian Cancer Research Alliance.

Dr. Cheung’s primary research interest is using big data for health services and outcomes research as well as generating real-world evidence across all tumor sites. His projects focus on understanding the interplay of various patient, physician, and system level factors that drive practice patterns in the population-based setting and learning how costs and processes can be modified to better inform care. The overarching goal of his work is to ensure that cancer care is appropriately accessed and delivered to patients in an equitable and effective manner. His own research and those of his trainees appear frequently in high impact scientific journals. To date, he has published more than 175 peer-reviewed manuscripts. He enjoys mentoring trainees, many of whom have proceeded to develop successful academic careers. Over two dozen of his trainees have received ASCO Merit Awards and additional grants since 2010.

Jeff Dowden is a clinical epidemiologist with Cancer Care Program, Eastern Health, St. John’s NL. Jeff has over 15 years of relevant experience in the area of health systems data, health analytics and large-scale heath data projects, specifically in the area of cancer care. As an epidemiologist with formal training in applied statistics, Jeff has extensive knowledge in epidemiological designs, analysis of complex data, and statistical modeling, as well as experience working with complex data repositories and the ability to transform and integrate data through technical expertise with linkages and assisting in building data products used for evidence-based decision making purposes. Jeff is an active member of the global cancer surveillance community and chairs a number of committees including the Canadian Cancer Registry Data Use and Publications Committee and the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries (NAACCR) Research and Data Use steering committee. Jeff’s research interest include cancer epidemiology and surveillance; and machine learning using administrative cancer data.

Selected Publications

Dai, W.F.; de Oliveira, C.; Blommaert, S.; Pataky, R.E.; Tran, D.; Aurangzeb, Z.; Kendell, C.; Folkins, C.; Somayaji, C.; Dowden, J.; Cheung, W.; Strumpf, E.; Beca, J.M.; McClure, C.; Urquhart, R.; McDonald, J.T.; Alvi, R.; Turner, D.; Peacock, S.; Denburg, A.; Mercer, R.E.; Muñoz, C.; Parmar, A.; Tadrous, M.; Takhar, P.; Chan, K.K.W.; on behalf of the CanREValue Collaboration. Mapping Canadian Data Assets to Generate Real-World Evidence: Lessons Learned from Canadian Real-World Evidence for Value of Cancer Drugs (CanREValue) Collaboration’s RWE Data Working Group. Curr. Oncol. 2022, 29, 2046-2063. https://doi.org/10.3390/curroncol29030165

Lyratzopoulos Y., McPhail, S, Dowden J, ICBP Members Team. Risk factors and prognostic implications of diagnosis of cancer as an emergency: An International Cancer Benchmarking Partnership (ICBP) comparative study on 857,080 patients with oesophageal, stomach, colon, rectal, liver, pancreatic, lung and ovarian cancer across 14 international jurisdictions. Lancet Oncology 2021, Accepted.

Asghari S, Boyd S, Blackmore J, Hurley O, Knight J, Kelly D, Burt K, Pittman B, Gilbert L, Dowden J. Developing a database with sensitive health information, a profile of people living with HIV in Newfoundland and Labrador. IJPDS 2020, 5(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v5i1.1144

Zuijdwijk CS, Pardy SA, Dowden JJ, Dominic AM, Bridger T, Newhook LA. The mSCOFF for Screening Disordered Eating in Pediatric Type 1 Diabetes. Diabetes Care 2014 Feb; 37(2): e26-e27. https://doi.org/10.2337/dc13-1637.

Watkins KE, Way CY, Gregory DM, LeDrew HM, Ludlow VC, Esplen MJ, Dowden JJ, Cox JE, Fitzgerald GW, Parfrey PS. Development and preliminary testing of the psychosocial adjustment to hereditary diseases scale. BMC Psychol. 2013 Apr 30;1(1):7. doi: 10.1186/2050-7283-1-7. eCollection 2013.

Dr. Kelvin Chan is a medical oncologist at the Sunnybrook Odette Cancer Centre, an associate professor at the University of Toronto, and an associate scientist at the Sunnybrook Research Institute. He specializes in GI oncology and head and neck oncology.

As a clinical epidemiologist and biostatistician, Dr. Chan’s research interests include health services research, health technology assessment, meta-analysis including network meta-analysis, cost-effectiveness analyses, and statistical methods research in health economics. He is co-director at the Canadian Centre for Applied Research in Cancer Control (ARCC), funded by the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS).

Professionally, Dr Chan has an interest in cancer drug reimbursement related issues. He is a member of multiple provincial and national committees related to cancer drug assessments and recommendations including the Committee to Evaluate Drug (CED) and the Ontario Steering Committee of Cancer Drugs (OSCCD). He is also the clinical lead for the Provincial Drug Reimbursement Programs (PDRP) at Ontario Health-Cancer Care Ontario (OH-CCO).

Selected Publications

1. Dai WF, de Oliveira C, Blommaert S, Pataky RE, Tran D, Aurangzeb Z, Kendell C, Folkins C, Somayaji C, Dowden J, Cheung W, Strumpf E, Beca JM, McClure C, Urquhart R, McDonald JT, Alvi R, Turner D, Peacock S, Denburg A, Mercer RE, Muñoz C, Parmar A, Tadrous M, Takhar P, Chan KKW, On Behalf Of The CanREValue Collaboration. Mapping Canadian Data Assets to Generate Real-World Evidence: Lessons Learned from Canadian Real-World Evidence for Value of Cancer Drugs (CanREValue) Collaboration’s RWE Data Working Group. Curr Oncol. 2022 Mar 17;29(3):2046-2063. doi: 10.3390/curroncol29030165. PMID: 35323365; PMCID: PMC8947246.

2. Beca JM, Dai WF, Pataky RE, Tran D, Dvorani E, Isaranuwatchai W, Peacock S, Alvi R, Cheung WY, Earle CC, Gavura S, Chan KKW. Real-world Safety of Bevacizumab with First-line Combination Chemotherapy in Patients with Metastatic Colorectal Cancer: Population-based Retrospective Cohort Studies in Three Canadian Provinces. Clin Oncol (R Coll Radiol). 2022 Jan;34(1):e7-e17. doi: 10.1016/j.clon.2021.08.009. Epub 2021 Aug 26. PMID: 34456106.

3. Dai WF, Craig E, Fraser B, Chambers A, Mai H, Brown MB, Earle CC, Evans WK, Geirnaert M, Taylor M, Trudeau M, Sperber D, Beca JM, Denburg A, Mercer RE, Parmar A, Tadrous M, Takhar P, Chan KKW, On Behalf Of The CanREValue Collaboration. Building a National Reassessment Process for Oncology Drugs: Lessons Learned by the Canadian Real-World Evidence for Value of Cancer Drugs (CanREValue) Collaboration through a Simulated Reassessment Exercise. Curr Oncol. 2021 Nov 12;28(6):4645-4654. doi: 10.3390/curroncol28060392. PMID: 34898572; PMCID: PMC8628679.

4. Beca JM, Walsh S, Raza K, Hubay S, Robinson A, Mow E, Keech J, Chan KKW. Cost-effectiveness analysis of first-line treatment with crizotinib in ROS1-rearranged advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in Canada. BMC Cancer. 2021 Oct 29;21(1):1162. doi: 10.1186/s12885-021-08746-z. PMID: 34715804; PMCID: PMC8556902.

5. Dai WF, Beca JM, Croxford R, Isaranawatchai W, Menjak IB, Petrella TM, Mittmann N, Earle CC, Gavura S, Hanna TP, Chan KKW. Real-world comparative effectiveness of second-line ipilimumab for metastatic melanoma: a population-based cohort study in Ontario, Canada. BMC Cancer. 2020 Apr 15;20(1):304. doi: 10.1186/s12885-020-06798-1. PMID: 32293341; PMCID: PMC7158109.

6. Dai WF, Beca JM, Nagamuthu C, Liu N, de Oliveira C, Earle CC, Trudeau M, Mercer RE, Chan KKW. Comparative Effectiveness and Safety of Pertuzumab and Trastuzumab Plus Chemotherapy vs Trastuzumab Plus Chemotherapy for Treatment of Metastatic Breast Cancer. JAMA Netw Open. 2022 Feb 1;5(2):e2145460. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.45460. PMID: 35226087; PMCID: PMC8886524.

7. Dai WF, Beca JM, Nagamuthu C, Liu N, de Oliveira C, Earle CC, Trudeau M, Chan KKW. Cost-effectiveness Analysis of Pertuzumab With Trastuzumab in Patients With Metastatic Breast Cancer. JAMA Oncol. 2022 Feb 24:e218049. doi: 10.1001/jamaoncol.2021.8049. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35201264; PMCID: PMC8874900.

8. Chan K, Nam S, Evans B, de Oliveira C, Chambers A, Gavura S, Hoch J, Mercer RE, Dai WF, Beca J, Tadrous M, Isaranuwatchai W. Developing a framework to incorporate real-world evidence in cancer drug funding decisions: the Canadian Real-world Evidence for Value of Cancer Drugs (CanREValue) collaboration. BMJ Open. 2020 Jan 7;10(1):e032884. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2019-032884. PMID: 31915169; PMCID: PMC6955501.