About the C3

The Canadian Cholangiocarcinoma Collaborative (C3) is a partnership among patients, caregivers, oncologists and researchers which was formed to grow hope in patients and families affected by cholangiocarcinoma.

How we can help

Our mission is to translate hope into better outcomes by enhancing patient access to personalized testing, expert opinions and treatments, including targeted agents and immunotherapy through clinical trials, and to create a high-quality immunotherapy pipeline for novel therapeutic discoveries.

We believe that Research is Care.

C3 Pillars

Increase HOPE in patients

Hope means never giving up. We want to give hope and support to anyone affected by cholangiocarcinoma. This is why we have a dedicated C3 "Research Navigator" whose role is to help patients navigate through their journey with cancer. This includes assisting patients participate in C3 initiatives and opportunities such as:

The International Cholangiocarcinoma Patient Registry
National BTC Multidisciplinary Oncology Rounds
Clinical Trial info sessions and Trial Matching
The C3 "Hope Study"

The STAR-C Trial: A Clinical Trial using Selected Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes Against Refractory Cholangiocarcinoma in Canada

We want to provide cholangiocarcinoma patients the opportunity to access tumour infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) therapy, a highly promising immunotherapeutic strategy that has been underutilized in Canada because of the lack of coordinated infrastructure to run these trials. Our team has experts in TIL therapy and we have the goal of establishing a network of academic facilities that will enable the rapid development of TIL therapy in Canada.

The C3 IMmunotherapy Pipeline And Care Team (IMPACT) is here to advance research and find novel therapies

We believe that Research is Care. This is why we have assembled a multidisciplinary team of leading scientists and cholangiocarcinoma researchers at academic institutes across Canada to collaborate towards finding novel targets and therapies to use against cholangiocarcinoma. We will publish our findings in peer-reviewed scientific journals and present at national conferences to spread awareness and advance our knowledge of this rare cancer.

Team Leads

Dr. Rebecca Auer

C3 HOPE Lead

Dr. Simon Turcotte

C3 STAR-C Lead

Dr. Carolina Ilkow

C3 IMPACT Lead