The Terry Fox Research Institute’s Atlantic Dialogue on Patient-Centred Care in a Personalized Treatment World

The words “personalized medicine” are used daily now in cancer care and research conversations. But what do those words really mean to us as patients, caregivers, physicians, managers of the health system, or researchers? Do we know how personalized medicine will affect us over the next decade? Are we prepared?Those and other questions are part of a continuing conversation that the Terry Fox Research Insti-tute is having with the Canadian public in 2010 as part of its public research and outreach project, The Pan-Canadian Dialogue Series on Cancer: Let’s Get Personal. The first dialogue was held in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, April 12, to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the Terry Fox Marathon of Hope. It featured speakers and panellists from Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. Three core issues framed the Atlantic discussion: cancer and population health, cancer and the health system, and the science behind cancer care.