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Cancer Collaborative Group - Princess Alexandra Hospital

Governance and Structure || Purpose || Achievements || Multidisciplinary Clinics || Clinical Trials

The Princess Alexandra Hospital Cancer Collaborative Group was formally established in May 2002 under the aegis of the Princess Alexandra Hospital Centres for Health Research. In 2003, the Cancer Collaborative Group was awarded a grant worth $2 million dollars by the Queensland Cancer Council.

The Cancer Collaborative Group is a collaborative network of university and hospital basic science and clinical investigators working together to enhance scientific and translational capabilities in the field of cancer research and patient care. The Cancer Collaborative Group encompasses nurses, allied health professionals, solid tissue and haematological oncologists, surgeons from a variety of disciplines, radiation oncologists and biomedical scientists. Since its inception in 2002 the Cancer Collaborative Group has enhanced cohesion with respect to cancer research on the campus and has provided an opportunity to modify current institutional practice to better integrate research into clinical practice. Communication between people involved in cancer research and care has been facilitated through a program of research seminars spanning the range of cancer research being undertaken on the campus and through informal and structured meetings. The Cancer Collaborative Group has also been very successful in helping to establish new collaborations between different investigators and particularly between clinicians and laboratory scientists which have led to submissions for research funding eg in relation to bone cancer.

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Governance and Structure

The Cancer Collaborative Group is run by a management committee, chaired by Dr Devinder Gill. The Centres for Health Research provides the administrative infrastructure.

CCG Structure

Management Committee:

Dr Devinder Gill (Chair)

 Dr Gill

Dr Devinder Gill is currently both the Chair of the Cancer Collaborative Group and the Director of Clinical Haematology and Research Fellow (Diamantina Institute) at the Princess Alexandra Hospital. Previous to this Dr Gill was a lecturer in Haematology at St Mary’s Hospital Medical School, University of London, UK. Dr Gill’s research is focused around leukaemia’s, lymphomas and Myeloma’s. As chairman of the CCG he aims to use the Cancer Collaborative Group as a way in which to strengthen translational research and establish databases for malignancies. PA-RESEARCH@health.qld.gov.au

 

 

 

Associate Professor Nick Saunders

 Associate Professor Nick Saunders
Associate Professor Nick Saunders is currently the Head of the Epithelial Pathobiology Group, in the Cancer Biology Programme at the Diamantina Institute, University of Queensland at the Princess Alexandra Hospital Campus. Associate Professor Nick Saunders is the Head of the Microarray Unit which is a Cancer Collaborative Group initiative. Associate Professor Saunders is currently teaching at the University of Queensland's Department of Physiology and Pharmacology. Associate Professor Saunders main research area is in the understanding of squamous differentiation and how this process is disrupted during squamous cell carcinoma formation. The hope is that this knowledge will help to develop novel therapies for the treatment of squamous cell carcinomas. nsaunders@cicr.uq.edu.au

Dr Damien Thomson

 Damian Thomson
Dr Damien Thomson is currently working as the Director of Oncology here at the Princes Alexandra Hospital. Dr Thomson also teaches a number of 2nd and 4th year students in Oncology. The majority of Medical Oncologists working in Queensland were trained under Dr Thomson. Dr Thomson’s main passion is to make sure that the Centre continues to be involved in the high rate of national and international trials currently undertaken.

Ms Areti Gavrilidis

 Areti Gavrilidis
Ms Areti Gavrilidis is currently holding the position of Director Research Development, Ethics and Policy, Princess Alexandra Hospital. Ms Gavrilidis has a broad business and scientific background having worked in both the public and private health sectors. Prior to her appointment at the Princess Alexandra Hospital Centres for Health Research in 2002, Ms Gavrilidis worked with Austin Health in the establishment of the Austin Biomedical Alliance.
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Professor Ian Frazer

 Professor Ian Frazer
Ian Frazer was trained as a clinican at Edinburgh University, and as a researcher at the Walter and Eliza Hall institute. He is director of the Diamantina Institute, a 120 person research centre of the University of Queensland on the Princess Alexandra Hospital campus. He is trained as a Clinical Immunologist and a Pathologist, and has major research interests in therapeutic vaccines for cancer and chronic diseases. He holds grants from the NHMRC the Wellcome foundation and others for clincial trials and preclinical research in vaccine development, and has in the past been involved in the development of the HPV vaccine to prevent cervical cancer. He is vice president of the Cancer Council Australia.

 

Alexandra McCarthy

sandy mccarthy Alexandra McCarthy holds a joint appointment with Southern Area Health Service Cancer Clinical Network as Senior Research Fellow, and Queensland University of Technology as Senior Lecturer, Postgraduate Strand Co-ordinator Cancer Nursing, School of Nursing.  Alexandra currently sits as a member of the Cancer Nurses Society of Australia (CNSA), and chairs the CNSA Education Committee.  She is also a long-standing member of CNSA's Research and Grants Committee and the Editorial Board of the Australian Journal of Cancer Nursing.  Her main area of practice is in acute and palliative cancer care, specialising in chemotherapy administration in rural and metropolitan settings.  Alexandra's research agenda includes projects examining the late effects of cancer therapies; issues of quality of life and behavioural risk in cancer survivorship; and symptom management, including pain, fatigue and oral mucositis.

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Purpose

The Cancer Collaborative Group was formed to foster internal and external research collaborations and to capitalise on the unique resources of the Princess Alexandra Hospital campus for the benefit of people with cancer. The Princess Alexandra Hospital has a large, highly developed cancer service operating in a sophisticated modern hospital with an expert staff. There is a strong tradition of basic and clinical research with a record of success in research translation.

The Cancer Collaborative Group was formed to foster and further enhance the research capability, foster internal and external research collaborations and to capitalise on the unique resources of the campus for the benefit of people with cancer.

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Achievements of the Cancer Collaborative Group

Basic Research

Clinical Research

  1. The post-operative skin trial (POST) has received a multi-state cancer grant and is both financially secure and accruing well (Radiation Oncology)
  2. The melanoma trial TROG 02.01 continues to be one of the most successful radiation trials in the country with an average of 8 patients being recruited a month, half of whom come from PAH (Radiation Oncology)
  3. Completion of the study “Feasibility and long-term efficacy study of a new non-indwelling voice prosthesis (Provox® NIDTM) and its accessories for tracheoesophageal voice restoration in laryngectomized patients” with a publication in an internationally peer-reviewed journal.

Other Research

  1. Approval in 2005 for a state-wide oncology information system (Radiation Oncology)
  2. A recent abstract presented and published in March, 2006 at the Annual Scientific Meeting of the Thoracic Society of Australia and New ZealandNon small cell lung with synchronous cerebral metastasis - predictors of survival. Larby J, Garske L, Armstrong J, Dauth M, Jones M, Lehman M : Respirology (2006), 11, (suppl 2), A61.

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Multidisciplinary Clinics

An important feature of cancer care at the Princess Alexandra Hospital is the existence of combined clinics involving nurses, allied health professionals and oncologists, surgeons and radiation oncologists. Theses clinics have successfully taken place for approximately the past 15 years. Clinics are established in Melanoma, Upper GI, Germ Cell, Colorectal, Pancreatico-biliary, Head and Neck, Breast, Bone and Soft Tissue, Lung, Lymphoma, Myeloma, Leukaemia, Pituitary and others.

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Clinical Trials

Clinical Trials are research studies which test new and better ways of improving health in patients.

In Cancer, trials look to:

For the Cancer Collaborative Group, Clinical Trials form a significant part of the research basis upon which the departments, centres and units work. It is therefore very important for the Cancer Collaborative Group to create a sustainable future for Clinical Trials. Please see the link below to be able to find out more about the Cancer trials previously undertaken at the Princess Alexandra Hospital Sites.

 

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Last Updated: 13 December 2010
Last Reviewed: 13 December 2010