The Nova Scotia Community Cancer Matrix (NSC-Cancer Matrix), a project lead by Dr. Nathalie Saint-Jacques (Nova Scotia Cancer Care Program, Nova Scotia Health Authority) and funded by the Nova Scotia Health Research Foundation (NSHRF), has been developed to determine the underlying etiology of cancers affecting Nova Scotia communities over the past 15 years. Ultimately, the goal of the NSC-Cancer Matrix is to identify community-specific risk factors— including socioeconomic, lifestyle and environmental exposures, in particular, arsenic in drinking water and indoor radon— contributing to excess cancer risk, to inform the development of effective and targeted cancer prevention strategies.

 

In joining CE2C, Dr. Saint-Jacques will collaborate with Dr. Jong Sung Kim (HERC Lab, Dept. of Community Health and Epidemiology, Dalhousie University) to identify chemical markers of smoking and pollution exposure to help determine their impact alone or in combination with arsenic and radon on cancer development in Atlantic Canada.