IMDC Genesis

It all started when…

…due to severe inclement weather, Dr. Heng (Danny - then a Medical Oncology resident) was unable to go Boxing Day shopping with his family in December 2006. Instead, he pulled out his laptop and got to work. He began by collecting data on patients with metastatic RCC treated with targeted therapy from Vancouver (British Columbia Cancer Agency). These initial 69 patients were the first group to enter what is now the IMDC. At the same time, Dr. Choueiri (Toni) was data gathering at Cleveland Clinic prior to moving to Boston, where he incorporated additional patients from Harvard-affiliated sites, including the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Danny and Toni knew that this was the beginning of something special. After completing his training in Vancouver, Danny returned home to Calgary (Tom Baker Cancer Centre) and recruited additional Canadian sites including Edmonton (Cross Cancer Institute) and Toronto (Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and Sunnybrook Odette Cancer Centre). Together, these were the the founding institutions of the IMDC which led to the original IMDC prognostic factors paper published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology in 2009.

Since then…

The IMDC has grown to include a wide network of institutions and investigators from all around the world. Our group has a keen interest in health outcomes, prognostic factors, treatment patterns, and using real-world evidence to inform clinical practice.

IMDC BY the numbers

• 13,500+ patients

• 7000+ citations

• 55+ peer-reviewed publications

• 40+ participating institutions

• 17+ countries

• 22+ clinical and research fellows

• 10+ years of international collaboration