Inside CAN-PACT: Transforming Cancer Care with Psychedelics

Something big is happening: Canadian researchers have recently secured $5M in funding to advance cancer care with psychedelics. In this episode of The Integration Session, Dr. Ron Shore and Dr. Harriet Richardson provide an inside perspective on CAN-PACT—a national collaborative that’s aiming to transform mental health support in cancer care with high-quality research, clinician training, and policy development. We discuss how psychedelics can help people with cancer, CAN-PACT’s research plans for the next 5-10 years, and when we can expect psychedelic therapy to become more widely available. Tune in for this hopeful and evidence-based look at how psychedelic science could transform cancer care in Canada. 

Dr. Harriet Richardson is an epidemiologist who received her PhD in Epidemiology & Biostatistics from McGill University in 2003 where she studied the natural history of human papillomavirus infections and cervical neoplasia. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences, at Queen’s University where she teaches in the graduate programs and is the current Graduate Coordinator. She is also a Senior Investigator at the Canadian Cancer Trials Group and currently oversees the Breast Cancer Prevention portfolio and the Supportive Care Committee. Her research interests include cancer prevention, cancer symptom management and the use of etiological and prognostic biomarkers in population‐based studies. 

Dr. Ronald (Ron) Shore is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, Queen's University and the (Interim) Assistant Scientific Director of the Canadian Institute for Military and Veteran Research in Kingston, Ontario. Ron is the founder of Kingston's Street Health Centre, a community health centre for people facing multiple barriers to health including complex addiction, mental health, trauma and homelessness. He has thirty-five years experience in addictions and mental health. Ron's PhD is specific to the clinical application of psilocybin, he is faculty in the Michener Insititute's Foundations of Psychedelic Assisted Psychotherapy program, an investigator and clinical trial therapist in psychedelic trials, the co-Principal Investigator of the Canadian Network for Psilocybin-assisted Cancer Therapy (CAN-PACT) and a consultant advisor to the Centre for Psychedelics Health and Research at Providence Care.