Cancer

Overview

The management of cancer has changed dramatically through increased knowledge of the biology of tumour growth with molecular pathways explaining tumour progression, metastasis and cell death. Treatment still for many is centred on surgery but there are now finer details to understand for individual patient prognosis and predictive factors for individual treatment options. This has occurred through the integration of basic science linking molecular and immunologic targets to better treatment and patient outcomes. There remains much to develop as cancer is a broad group of diseases with intra patient variation requiring more and more information on each patient and each tumour.

The Cancer Theme incorporates lead clinician/scientists with extensive and complementary expertise from across Health Translation Queensland’s partners. The partners have established long linked cancer care across Queensland to multidisciplinary care models. The initial focus is on four tumour-based streams that evidence suggests are highly amenable to this revolutionary new therapeutic approach; namely haematological, lung, head and neck, and upper GI cancers. The lead clinician/scientists have already established expertise to steer these projects and aid the development of other tumour streams.

The Cancer Theme within Health Translation Queensland will provide a number of interlinked pathways that lead to improved patient outcomes via better understanding of tumours using the resources of our medical research institute and university partners with direct linkages to clinician researchers and innovative clinical trials. This will be surrounded by a patient centred approach that improves patient experiences and symptom control. Data linkages through the Queensland Cancer Control Analysis Team covering all cancer care in Queensland will allow better measurement of effectiveness and quality while helping the understanding of tumour biology by linking cellular mechanisms to clinical outcomes of tumour behaviour and treatment response.

Aims

This theme aims to improve cancer care by:

• Undertaking broad data capture of disease incidence, treatments, complications and outcomes across Health Translation Queensland’s partners
• Integrating leading research scientists and research platforms/tools with clinicians across Health Translation Queensland to ensure that the maximum information and data is gained from preclinical and trial work to inform subsequent study and treatment protocols.
• Prioritising and developing translation approaches for new therapeutics discovered and developed by Health Translation Queensland’s partners into first in man phase I/II trials within the health delivery partners
• Identifying strategies for the integration of clinical trials and then standard of care treatment paradigms across Health Translation Queensland’s partners
• Consolidating clinical trials activity to minimise overheads and provide cross-institutional support across the health partners
• Enhancing research opportunities and promoting broad based funding streams, both federal and industry derived, within cancer research across Health Translation Queensland’s partners

For more information contact projects@healthtranslationqld.org.au

Theme leaders