Cohort profile: the Alberta Prostate Cancer Research Initiative (APCaRI) Registry and Biorepository facilitates technology translation to the clinic through the use of linked, longitudinal clinical and patient-reported data and biospecimens from men in Alberta, Canada

Abstract

PurposeThe Alberta Prostate Cancer Research Initiative (APCaRI) Registry and Biorepository was established in 2014 by the APCaRI to facilitate the collection of clinical and patient-reported data, biospecimen, to measure prostate cancer outcomes and to support the development and clinical translation of innovative technologies to better diagnose and predict outcomes for patients with prostate cancer.ParticipantsMen suspected with prostate cancer and referred to Urology centres in Alberta were enrolled in the APCaRI 01 study, while men with a prior prostate cancer diagnosis participated in the APCaRI 03 study from 1 July 2014 to 30 June 2019. The APCaRI Registry and Biorepository links biospecimens and data from a wide representation of patients drawn from an Alberta population of more than 4 million.Findings to dateFrom 1 July 2014 to 30 June 2019, total APCaRI 01 and 03 study recruitment was 3754 men; 142 (4%) of these men withdrew in full, 65 men (2%) withdrew biospecimens and 123 men (3%) died of any cause. Over this same time, 8677 patient-reported outcome measure (PROM) surveys and 7368 biospecimens were collected and are available from the registry and biorepository, respectively. The data entry error rate was 0.8% and 0.95% for critical and non-critical values, respectively, and 1.8% for patient-reported surveys.Future plansThe APCaRI Registry and Biorepository will collect longitudinal data and PROM surveys until 2024, patient outcomes up to 25 years after recruitment and biospecimen storage for up to 25 years. The APCaRI cohorts will continue to provide data and samples to researchers conducting retrospective studies. The richness of the data and biospecimens will complement many different research questions, ultimately to improve the quality of care for men with prostate cancer.

Clinical analysis of EV‐Fingerprint to predict grade group 3 and above prostate cancer and avoid prostate biopsy

“…Uniform patient biopsy protocols and synoptic reporting consistent with ISUP 2005 criteria were used. 6,19 The main study limitations are listed below. The percentage of non-Caucasian men in the cohort was low (13%).…”

Antibody titrations are critical for microflow cytometric analysis of extracellular vesicles

“…Pre‐biopsy plasma samples from men confirmed to be negative for prostate cancer were acquired from the Alberta Prostate Cancer Research Initiative (APCaRI) biorepository [23]. All patients provided written informed consent, and the study was approved by the scientific ethics committees at the Prostate Cancer Centre (Calgary, Alberta, Canada) and the Northern Alberta Urology Centre (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada).…”

“…For example, the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center (UWCCC) Flow lab has a good protocol for the analysis of Separation Index and concatenation of data using FlowJo[23].• FlowJo Exchange (https://www.flowjo.com/ exchange/#/) provides an automated Stain index plugin which provides an auto-gating option for finding positive and negative populations. We have not validated this plugin with our data.…”

Building predictive disease models using extracellular vesicle microscale flow cytometry and machine learning

“…Pre‐biopsy plasma samples from 215 men suspected of prostate cancer were acquired from the Alberta Prostate Cancer Research Initiative (APCaRI) biorepository [ 22 ]. The clinical study was approved by the Health Research Ethics Board of Alberta under the APCaRI‐01 protocol (HREBA‐CC‐18‐0513).…”