Speakers

Dominick Bossé, MD, MSc, FRCPC, MPH

Dr. Dominick Bossé is a medical oncologist specializing in kidney and genitourinary cancers. He currently practices at the University of Ottawa / The Ottawa Hospital in Ontario. He completed his medical studies and residency in internal medicine at the Université de Sherbrooke in Quebec, and his specialization in medical oncology at the University of Ottawa. He also holds a master’s degree in physiology from the Université de Sherbrooke and a master’s degree in public health from Harvard University in Boston. Finally, he completed additional training in kidney cancer at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, under the supervision of Dr Toni Choueiri.

Christina Canil, MSc CGC

Dr. Christina Canil graduated from the University of British Columbia with a Bachelor of Science majoring in Microbiology. She completed medical school and her internal medicine residency at the University of Toronto and her Medical Oncology residency at McMaster University in Hamilton. Dr. Canil went on to complete a two-year clinical research fellowship at the Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto, with a focus on genitourinary (GU) cancers. She is a staff Medical Oncologist at the Ottawa Hospital Cancer Centre and an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa. Her clinical research interests include drug development and survivorship in GU cancers. She is a member of the Cancer Care Ontario Program in Evidence-Based Care GU Cancer Disease Site Group. Dr. Canil is a co-lead with Dr. Jennifer Jones for the survivorship initiative of the Kidney Cancer Research Network of Canada. 

Kristen McAlpine, MD, FRCSC

Dr. Kristen McAlpine is a urologic oncologist at Credit Valley Hospital in Mississauga, Ontario. She recently completed the Society of Urologic Oncology Fellowship at The University of Toronto and remains active with the urologic oncology program at UofT. Dr. McAlpine is also completing a PhD in Clinical Epidemiology through the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (IHPME) at UofT with a thesis focusing on the use of machine learning to improve the personalization of care for patients with renal masses. Her research interests include personalizing the care of patients with urologic cancers, developing tools to improve shared decision-making for patients facing challenging decisions, optimizing peri-operative thromboprophylaxis strategies and assessing the outcomes of various urologic cancer surgeries.

Anand Swaminath, MD, MSc, FRCPC

Dr. Swaminath is a clinician scientist and radiation oncologist at the Juravinski Cancer Centre, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada. His clinical and research interests are in the application of new technologies in radiation therapy, specifically stereotactic radiation for a wide variety of indications including kidney, lung and liver cancer. He has a particular interest in radiation for kidney cancer – he is a member of the International Radiation Oncology Consortium of Kidney (IROCK) group, the Canadian Kidney Cancer Information System (CKCIS) steering committee, and the medical advisory board for Kidney Cancer Canada. He is also a co-Principal Investigator on several local and national trials evaluating SBRT in both the primary and metastatic RCC setting.

Larissa Waldman, MSc CGC

Larissa Waldman is a genetic counsellor with the Cancer Genetics and High Risk Program at the Sunnybrook Odette Cancer Centre, and faculty in the Department of Molecular Genetics at the University of Toronto. At the Odette Cancer Centre, Larissa meets with patients who are suspected to have a hereditary risk to develop cancer, including kidney cancer, and coordinates point-of-care genetic testing (or “mainstreaming”) for patients with kidney cancer. Larissa’s academic interests include the integration of tumour genetic testing in cancer care. Outside of these roles, Larissa has completed a fellowship in Health Innovation through the Toronto Academic Health Sciences Network (TAHSN), and serves as a volunteer with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) ClinGen Clinical Actionability Working Group.

Andrew Weller
Chair, Kidney Cancer Canada

Andrew has been under surveillance for 20 years as part of a hereditary kidney cancer study. Due to the prevalence of kidney cancer in his family, he began volunteering with Kidney Cancer Canada to help advocate for access to innovative treatments and promote information for patients. Andrew, elected to the Kidney Cancer Canada Board in 2013, now serves as Chair and is active with the Kidney Cancer Research Network of Canada initiatives. Andrew is a Procurement Director for Rexall.