News

We want to extend a heartfelt thank you to everyone who joined us on August 10th at the annual Sarcoma Strong 5K Run/Walk in Hamilton! We were thrilled to see participation in this year’s event more than double compared to last year. It helped make this event a powerful celebration of community and hope in support of sarcoma research. A special thank you goes to Claudia Brown and the Jonathan Brown Foundation for their invaluable partnership. Their dedication to advancing sarcoma research and improving patient care continues to inspire and strengthen our mission. Through our collaboration, we raised over $12,000 to support sarcoma research in honour of Jonathan! Together, we are making strides toward better outcomes for those affected by sarcoma.

Posted on September 18, 2025

Edition 5 | September 2025

Posted on September 18, 2025

On September 3, 2025, Dr. Christopher Johnson at the Parkview Packnett Family Cancer Institute enrolled the first U.S. participant into the trial, a major milestone for the study. To date, five patients have been successfully enrolled across two sites: Parkview Cancer Institute in Indiana, USA, and Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre in Brazil. Additional clinical sites across Canada, the U.S., and internationally are nearing activation, and the team looks forward to continued participant enrollment throughout the summer.

Posted on September 16, 2025

Dr. Michelle Ghert and the research team attended the 37th Annual European Musculo-Skeletal Oncology Society (EMSOS) Meeting in Padova, Italy from April 28th to 30th. Dr. Ghert presented an update on the PERFORM trial development and start-up. The conference provided a great opportunity to connect with international colleagues who participate in and continue to support the team's ongoing initiatives!

Posted on July 20, 2025

We are excited to announce that we have enrolled our first patient into the PERFORM Trial! Our site in Porto Alegre, Brazil, led by Dr. Ricardo Becker, consented and randomized their first participant today who will be receiving surgery shortly. Please join us in congratulating our colleagues including Julie Cerutti, our research team member in Brazil. Well done!

Posted on July 20, 2025

We are pleased to announce that our site, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre in Brazil led by Dr. Ricardo Becker is now ready to begin enrolling patients into the PERFORM Trial! Dr. Becker and Research Coordinator, Julie Cerutti Pestilho, attended the Site Initiation Training on June 13th where we discussed the patient flow within the study which includes screening, consenting, randomization and the follow-up visit schedule.

Posted on June 26, 2025

The PERFORM Trial is now registered. The ClinicalTrials.gov identifier number is: NCT06863129.

Posted on March 6, 2025

We would like to thank everyone who was involved in developing the protocol for the PERFORM Trial. These efforts led to a high quality, valid protocol that was submitted for Ethics Approval through the coordinating center. We are thrilled to announce that the PERFORM trial has now received approval from the Hamilton Integrated Research Ethics Board through the Clinical Trials Ontario stream! The approval delineates the McMaster University Surgery Methods Center as the coordinating host center for the trial.

Posted on February 11, 2025

Dr. Michelle Ghert and her research team, Olivia Virag, Hadia Farrukh and Abbey Kunzli, attended the Musculoskeletal Tumor Society’s Annual Meeting last month in Chicago. Dr. Ghert and other investigators presented studies related to the PARITY, SAFETY and PERFORM Trials. While in Chicago, the team also held an Investigator Meeting for the Proximal FEmur Reconstruction or Internal Fixation fOR Metastases (PERFORM) trial on September 11, 2024. This hybrid meeting was attended by 45 investigators including senior methodology experts, Dr. Sheila Sprague from McMaster and Dr. Nathan O'Hara from the University of Maryland. Elements of the PERFORM trial protocol were presented and discussed, and attendees participated in a discrete choice experiment to determine the hierarchy of the composite outcome as part of the trial’s protocol development. Enrollment for the trial is expected to begin in 2025!

Posted on February 11, 2025