 |
The Department of Clinical and Laboratory Haematology is a tertiary referral centre for the study and management of haematological malignancies. The department continues to develop clinical programmes in leukaemias, lymphomas and myeloma with multidisciplinary clinics in these diseases. The department has one of the largest lymphoma clinics in the southern hemisphere. Because of its focus on the diagnosis and treatment of leukaemia, and lymphoma, the group has developed unique expertise in blood cancers and has a leading role in raising standards at national and international levels.
Research is carried out at three levels - basic, translational and clinical - with the focus being on improving patient outcomes. The department actively participates in all phases of clinical trials with some trials being initiated from this Unit and now with national and international participation. The staff have been invited, by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and Australian Cancer Network (ACN), to participate in producing guidelines for management of Hodgkin’s, Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphomas and Transplant related Lymphomas.
The focus of the translational research is on gene expression profiling in chronic lymphocytic leukaemia and detecting minimal disease in acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) and lymphoma not detectable with current technology. By utilising modern biological techniques, methods have been developed to detect and quantify extremely small amount of disease. The unit is recognised as a leader in this field. Ability to detect very small amount of disease enables further treatment to be given or for treatment to begin earlier. Furthermore, the treatment as a result can be ‘individualised’ and should result in higher cure rates.
Other languages