Jane Bayani

Dr. Bayani is a Principal Research Scientist and a Co-Director of Diagnostic Development at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research. She obtained her undergraduate degree from the University of Toronto and both graduate degrees from the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology.

With an extensive background in molecular pathology, molecular cytogenetics, and genomics, Dr. Bayani continues to focus on precision medicine - discovering and translating molecular signatures into new diagnostic approaches to improve diagnosis and stratification to treatment in the early disease setting, in both diagnostic tissue and liquid biopsy samples.

She is a co-inventor of two patented molecular signatures:

• a 95-Gene Signature of Risk in Early Hormone Receptor Positive Breast Cancers (US Patent: 62/263,805,PCT/CA2016/000304); and
• PRONTO (Patent No. 63/040.692), an early prostate cancer risk signature for occult high-grade cancer.

You can connect with Dr. Bayani on LinkedIn.

Research Synopsis

My research focuses on precision medicine approaches to discover and validate biomarkers using large well-annotated retrospective clinical and clinical trial cohorts. Translation of biomarkers and their diagnostic platforms are key to prospective clinical trial design and successful uptake in the diagnostic setting.

Critical to understanding the variable outcomes seen in the current standard of care treatment for cancers like breast and prostate, is recognizing the impact of genomic heterogeneity.

My ongoing research investigates the impact of heterogeneity at the genomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic levels and integrates these with other diagnostic testing modalities such as imaging and digital pathology to build a clinical toolbox that can improve risk assessment and treatment decision-making. This can significantly reduce the unnecessary overtreatment of some patients while accelerating it in others.

The extension of this work, primarily from tissue biopsies and resections, is being conducted in the liquid biopsy space with the goal of improved disease or treatment monitoring through less invasive collection methods.

Recent Publications

Key publications

Multimodal Biomarkers that Predict the Presence of Gleason Pattern 4: Potential Impact for Active Surveillance.Berman DM, Lee AY, Lesurf R, Patel PG, Ebrahimizadeh W, Bayani J, Lee LA, Boufaied N, Selvarajah S, Jamaspishvili T, Guérard KP, Dion D, Kawashima A, Clarke GM, How N, Jackson CL, Scarlata E, Siddiqui K, Okello JBA, Aprikian AG, Moussa M, Finelli A, Chin J, Brimo F, Bauman G, Loblaw A, Venkateswaran V, Buttyan R, Chevalier S, Thomson A, Park PC, Siemens DR, Lapointe J, Boutros PC, Bartlett JMS. J Urol. 2023 May 1:101097JU0000000000003507. doi: 10.1097/JU.0000000000003507. Online ahead of print.

Identification of Distinct Prognostic Groups: Implications for Patient Selection to Targeted Therapies Among Anti-Endocrine Therapy–Resistant Early Breast Cancers. Jane Bayani, Elizabeth N. Kornaga, Cheryl Crozier, Gun Ho Jang, Lauren Bathurst, Irina Kalatskaya, Quang M. Trinh, Cindy Q. Yao, Julie Livingstone, Paul C. Boutros, Melanie Spears, John D. McPherson, Lincoln D. Stein, Daniel Rea, John M.S. Bartlett. Journal of Clinical Oncology- Precision Oncology. 2019

Molecular stratification of early breast cancer identifies drug targets to drive stratified medicine. Bayani J, Yao CQ, Quintayo MA, Yan F, Haider S, D'Costa A, Brookes CL, van de Velde CJH, Hasenburg A, Kieback DG, Markopoulos C, Dirix L, Seynaeve C, Rea D, Boutros PC, Bartlett JMS. Nature Publication Journal- Breast Cancer. 2017

Comparing Breast Cancer Multiparameter Tests in the OPTIMA Prelim Trial: No Test Is More Equal Than the Others. Bartlett JM, Bayani J, Marshall A, Dunn JA, Campbell A, Cunningham C, Sobol MS, Hall PS, Poole CJ, Cameron DA, Earl HM, Rea DW, Macpherson IR, Canney P, Francis A, McCabe C, Pinder SE, Hughes-Davies L, Makris A, Stein RC; OPTIMA TMG. Journal of the National Cancer Institute. 2016

Identification of human brain tumour initiating cells. Singh SK, Hawkins C, Clarke ID, Squire JA, Bayani J, Hide T, Henkelman RM, Cusimano MD, Dirks PB. Nature. 2004

Recent publications

Can immune markers help identify fast relapse in patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer? Olkhov-Mitsel E, Hodgson A, Liu SK, Vesprini D, Bayani J, Bartlett JMS, Xu B, Downes MR. Pathology - Research and Practice 2020

Computational approaches to support comparative analysis of multiparametric tests: Modelling versus Training. Bartlett JMS, Bayani J, Kornaga EN, Danaher P, Crozier C, Piper T, Yao CQ, Dunn JA, Boutros PC, Stein RC; OPTIMA Trial Management Group. PLoS One. 2020

The use of Lutetium-177 PSMA radioligand therapy with high dose rate brachytherapy for locally recurrent prostate cancer after previous definitive radiation therapy: a randomized, single-institution, phase I/II study (ROADSTER). Mendez LC, Dhar A, Laidley D, Moussa M, Gomez JA, Chin J, Lee TY, Thiessen JD, Hoover D, Surrey K, Helou J, Velker V, Correa RJ, D'Souza D, Bayani J, Bauman G.BMC Cancer. 2023 Apr 20;23(1):362. doi: 10.1186/s12885-023-10851-0.

Systematically higher Ki67 scores on core biopsy samples compared to corresponding resection specimen in breast cancer: a multi-operator and multi-institutional study. Acs B, Leung SCY, Kidwell KM, Arun I, Augulis R, Badve SS, Bai Y, Bane AL, Bartlett JMS, Bayani J, Bigras G, Blank A, Buikema H, Chang MC, Dietz RL, Dodson A, Fineberg S, Focke CM, Gao D, Gown AM, Gutierrez C, Hartman J, Kos Z, Lænkholm AV, Laurinavicius A, Levenson RM, Mahboubi-Ardakani R, Mastropasqua MG, Nofech-Mozes S, Osborne CK, Penault-Llorca FM, Piper T, Quintayo MA, Rau TT, Reinhard S, Robertson S, Salgado R, Sugie T, van der Vegt B, Viale G, Zabaglo LA, Hayes DF, Dowsett M, Nielsen TO, Rimm DL; International Ki67 in Breast Cancer Working Group of the Breast International Group and North American Breast Cancer Group (BIG-NABCG).Mod Pathol. 2022 Oct;35(10):1362-1369. doi: 10.1038/s41379-022-01104-9. Epub 2022 Jun 21.

Discordance between Immunohistochemistry and Erb-B2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinase 2 mRNA to Determine Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2 Low Status for Breast Cancer.Xu K, Bayani J, Mallon E, Pond GR, Piper T, Hasenburg A, Markopoulos CJ, Dirix L, Seynaeve CM, van de Velde CJH, Rea DW, Bartlett JMS.J Mol Diagn. 2022 Jul;24(7):775-783. doi: 10.1016/j.jmoldx.2022.04.002. Epub 2022 May 5.PMID: 35526835