Behind the breakthroughs: The quiet powerhouse of cancer research
21 June 2025
When a cancer trial hits the headlines, it’s usually the breakthrough treatment that gets the glory. But behind the scenes is often a team ensuring the data is sound, the design is ethical, and the evidence stands up to scrutiny.
And that team is the Centre for Biostatistics and Clinical Trials (BaCT), which has been playing a crucial role in cancer research for more than 50 years.
“Running a clinical trial through a specialist Centre like BaCT ensures high quality data and outcomes that can be practice changing,” says Christine Russell, BaCT’s Quality Manager, who has been with the team for over 25 years.
Founded in 1971 as the Statistical Centre under Dr Jane Matthews, BaCT was born at a time when data in medicine was an afterthought.
Today, the department is a crucial part of cancer research at Peter Mac and beyond, running multi-centre trials across Australia with gold-standard integrity. Their work has supported trials involving up to 15 hospitals and hundreds of patients, coordinating every layer from ethics and data management to statistical analysis.
BaCT's evolution mirrors the increasingly complex landscape of medical research. From its early days supporting the Australian and New Zealand Lymphoma Group - now the ALLG - to partnering with groups like TROG, ANZGOG and ANZUP, the centre has quietly helped shape the future of cancer care.
“We’re like an internal CRO - a Contract Research Organisation - but significantly more affordable, and with a deep understanding of Peter Mac’s culture and standards,” Christine explains.
“Because our work happens behind the scenes, some teams might not realise we've been supporting clinical trials here for decades. We have expertise from trial concept through to completion and ensure trials comply with GCP (Good Clinical Practice) and all other regulatory requirements.”
The team of around 30 spans statisticians, data managers, project managers and clinical database programmers, all working in sync to uphold the quality and safety of investigator-initiated trials.
Professor Michael Dickinson, Lead of the Aggressive Lymphoma stream and Chair of the Clinical Research Committee at Peter Mac, said BaCT is an invaluable resource for his research that has spanned over 100 publications including in New England Journal of Medicine, Nature Medicine, and the Journal of Clinical Oncology and Blood.
“BaCT is unique in Australia, supporting investigators like me to run trials that we have designed, and to do so knowing the data we produce can be trusted,” he said.
“Put simply, we couldn’t do what we do without BaCT. Clinical trials can change patient’s lives, and independent trials like those BACT support are high impact and produce a lot of associated research into how our interventions work.
“Over more than 15 years, the team at BaCT have been trusted partners in getting our research done, and have supported many projects run by both senior clinicians and trainees who are learning how trials work.”
With more than half a century of impact behind it, BaCT remains a key pillar as Peter Mac enters a new era of research excellence ahead of the release of the 2025-2030 Research Strategy.
“Our strength has always been in collaboration,” says Christine. “We have the experience, the systems, the rigour — and a genuine commitment to getting it right. Before you start a trial, come and have a chat with us.”
For further information contact BaCT Directors
Emma Link:
Maria Farrell: