We need you to help us Rewrite Cancer

Together we can innovate, inspire and create change.


The Rewrite Cancer Innovation Challenge is now closed.

The submissions are in! Thank you for your interest in the Rewrite Cancer Innovation Challenge. Our Steering Committee is hard at work evaluating the many exceptional and innovative submissions we’ve received.

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Your ideas could help improve the cancer experience

By focusing on the importance of continued collaboration, competition and finding new solutions in the Canadian oncology space, we can bring different perspectives and experiences together and truly change the cancer story.

One winning submission from each of the four categories outlined below may have the opportunity to further develop their ideas with a benefit of collaboration, in-kind services and / or funds of up to a maximum value of $50,000 CAD. This benefit can include research support and partnerships with policy experts, advocacy groups and medical professionals, or IT support and consultation services.

Get inspired. Read about last year’s winners here.

Interested to know more about the Challenge?
Fill out your information below and we’ll keep you up-to-date on the Rewrite Cancer Innovation Challenge!

Team Member Update

A team member can sign up for individual updates on the Challenge.

  • Receive Updates About the Rewrite Cancer Innovation Challenge

    We need you to help us Rewrite the Cancer story.

    Together, we can innovate, inspire and create change.

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  • †We are not looking for testimonials about particular medicines or other products. Please note that submissions made through this website will be monitored for adverse event reports.

How it Works

Teams will collaborate to discuss, brainstorm, rethink and offer a solution to the Challenge, and help Rewrite the story of cancer for tomorrow’s patients.

Each team must provide their response to the Challenge using the Challenge submission form.

Each team’s submission must fit in to one of four categories:

  • Patient Disease Awareness and Education
  • Patient Support
  • Health Policy
  • Medical Education

Please see the Rewrite Cancer Innovation Challenge Official Rules and Regulations for further details on each of these categories.

Submissions must align to one or more oncology disease areas.

Submissions must also:

  • Be written in English or French
  • Be no more than 1,800 words in length
  • Come in the form of a PDF (up to 20MB)

Include the following information:

  • Team name
  • Team leader’s name and email address
  • Team members’ names and email addresses
  • City
  • Company, institution or organization team represents
  • Submission category
  • Oncology disease area

Two supplemental files, such as photos (PNG or JPG up to 10MB per photo) and videos (MP4 up to 1GB), may also accompany submissions.

Each team can ask the Steering Committee up to two questions to help guide the development of their submission. The Steering Committee will review and answer questions submitted. Questions and answers will then be compiled and shared with all registered teams.

Once the Challenge closes, the Steering Committee will review and evaluate all submissions, and choose the winning submission(s) in August 2021.

Important Dates

Registration Opens – March 1, 2021

Submit Questions – April 5, 2021

Submission Deadline – May 25, 2021

Evaluation Criteria

Submissions must have a clear approach that offers an innovative solution to the Challenge. Each submission will be reviewed by the Rewrite Cancer Steering Committee of oncology experts based on the following criteria:

  • Demonstrates innovative thinking that benefits patients and promotes collaboration between healthcare and / or academic institutions to address the Challenge statement
  • Clearly outlines proposal with evidence of a well thought out design (e.g. approach, executional considerations, resources, etc.)
  • Robust consideration of key milestone activities and estimated timelines for achieving each milestone
  • Includes methods of measuring impact / outcome, with a plan for optimizing or applying learnings
  • Validates feasibility and broad applicability

Please see the Rewrite Cancer Innovation Challenge Official Rules and Regulations for full details and weighting on evaluation criteria.

Steering Committee Members

Our Steering Committee of oncology experts will identify the leading ideas that may help make a difference in the lives of Canadians living with cancer.

  • Dr. Danielle Charpentier Hematologist and Oncologist, Medical Director, Integrated Oncology Centre, Montreal University Health Centre (CHUM)
  • MJ DeCoteau Founder and Executive Director, Rethink Breast Cancer
  • Dr. Fariba Kolahdooz Executive Director, Indigenous and Global Health Research Group, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta
  • Dr. Philip Kuruvilla Oncologist, William Osler Health System
  • Dr. Sylvain Mailhot Hematological and Anatomical Pathologist, Réseau Vitalité
  • Laureen Plommer Registered Nurse and Clinical Educator, London Health Sciences Centre
  • Christina Sit Programs Director, Lung Cancer Canada
  • Dr. Stephanie Snow Medical Oncologist, QEII Health Sciences Centre
  • Dr. Sunil Yadav Medical Director Quality, Safety and Disease Site Groups, Saskatoon Cancer Center


Invite others to learn more and participate in the Rewrite Cancer Innovation Challenge.