Melbourne’s Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre is joining forces with America’s Penn Medicine (University of Pennsylvania Health System), aiming to establish laboratory-clinical-research initiatives and open more clinical trials for Australian and American cancer patients.
A reciprocal agreement will see the two international leaders in cellular immunotherapy collaborate with an aim of providing greater access to new technologies and ultimately increasing opportunities for patients to benefit from cellular therapies.
Professor Simon Harrison, Director of the Peter Mac Centre of Excellence in Cellular Immunotherapy said: “We are delighted to be collaborating with Penn Medicine, a recognised global leader in cellular immunotherapy, to accelerate the development of new treatments for our patients.”
“Both institutions have exceptional clinical trial expertise and this partnership will further strengthen our capabilities in cellular therapies, for the benefit of all Australians.”
Peter Mac currently has 418 clinical trials underway with 40 per cent of those trials testing a new treatment in humans for the first time.
“Our team at Penn is excited to partner with our distinguished colleagues at Peter Mac,” said David L. Porter, MD, Director of Cell Therapy and Transplantation in Penn Medicine’s Abramson Cancer Center and the Jodi Fisher Horowitz Professor in Leukemia Care Excellence in Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine.
“We are excited about the opportunity to combine our expertise, to test important new therapies better and faster, and bring innovative cell therapies to many more patients than either group would be able to do alone.”
Penn Medicine’s Abramson Cancer Center is one of the world’s top research institutions for cellular therapies, having led the development and clinical trials for the United States’ first approved CAR T-cell therapy.
CAR T-cell therapy is a relatively new approach to treating cancer that harnesses a patient’s own immune cells to recognise and attack cancer.
The treatment has shown remarkable results, with certain CAR T-cell products provided to blood cancers patients in the standard of care setting and is being trialled in the research setting to treat certain solid tumours in humans.
The long term results of the first CAR T-cell trial at Penn Medicine’s Abramson Cancer Center were recently published, showing that two patients treated in 2010 both achieved and sustained remissions of their chronic lymphocytic leukaemia 10 years after initial treatment.
Penn Medicine currently has 16 CAR T-cell treatment trials underway.
The collaboration between Peter Mac and Penn Medicine aims to drive innovative clinical research collaborations and increase access to clinical trials and novel technologies, giving cancer patients hope for a better future.
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About Peter Mac
Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre is a world-leading cancer research, education and treatment centre and Australia’s only public health service solely dedicated to caring for people affected by cancer.
To advance her research using blood tests to track how tumours change over time, Professor Sarah-Jane Dawson has received $250K USD from The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research.
Professor Dawson is a clinician-scientist at Peter Mac and Professor at the Centre for Cancer Research, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences at the University of Melbourne.
She is the only Australian scientist included in the Mark Foundation’s latest round of ASPIRE grants.
ASPIRE grants support high-risk, high-reward projects that answer key feasibility and proof-of-concept questions in typically one year, and success can lead to more Mark Foundation funding.
“I am delighted to have The Mark Foundation’s support for this research which will improve blood tests, using a new approach developed at Peter Mac, to detect DNA fragments thrown off by tumours,” Prof Dawson says.
“These tests for ‘circulating tumour DNA’ have many untapped applications and will be used here to track how patients’ cancers change over time and in response to treatment.
“This may help explain why metastatic cancers are harder to treat than primary tumours and, ultimately, point us to treatments that remain effective for longer.”
Since 2017, the US-based Mark Foundation has awarded more than USD $180 million to cancer scientists, initially in the US and now increasingly international.
Scientists in Australia (including at Peter Mac) received ASPIRE program funding for the first time in 2021, with Austria and Switzerland added for the first time in 2022.
“These ASPIRE grants will enable innovative approaches to solving challenges in multiple cancer types including small cell lung cancer, breast cancer, and glioblastoma,” said Ryan Schoenfeld, CEO of The Mark Foundation.
“The projects are at the forefront of diverse research areas such as chemical biology, cancer evolution, and cellular plasticity.
“We continue to increase our financial commitment globally to accelerate the pace of scientific discovery and the development of new cancer therapies.”
2022 ASPIRE grants:
Learn more about the ASPIRE Awards here or visit www.TheMarkFoundation.org.
Associate Professor Stephanie Best has been appointed to Honorary Principal Fellow in the Sir Peter MacCallum Department of Oncology at the University of Melbourne.
Associate Professor Best is the Senior Research Lead for Implementation Science at Peter Mac in the Department of Health Services Research, a joint appointment with Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre (VCCC).
Associate Professor Best has over 25 years of international clinical, leadership and management experience of health care service delivery and is a senior research fellow at the Australian Institute of Health Innovation (AIHI), Macquarie University, Sydney.
Her most recent work has focused on the introduction and integration of clinical genomics and other evidence-based programmes and interventions into clinical practice.
Associate Professor Best led the implementation science research stream when she was embedded within the Australian Genomics Health Alliance, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute.
Her implementation projects have included a variety of interventions such as, mixed methods, discrete choice experiments, systematic reviews, and a range of innovative qualitative methodologies. These projects have taken place in a range of settings across, acute paediatric care, anorectal malformations and expanded reproductive carrier screening, to name a few.
Congratulations to Arian Lasocki who has been appointed to Honorary Clinical Associate Professor in the Sir Peter MacCallum Department of Oncology at the University of Melbourne.
Associate Professor Arian Lasocki is a Neuroradiologist, Head of Radiology Research and Co-Head of MRI at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.
Arian first rotated to Peter Mac as a medical student, and later as an HMO and Radiology Registrar. He undertook radiology training at the Western Hospital and an MRI/Neuroradiology Fellowship at Royal Melbourne Hospital before returning to Peter Mac in 2013 as a Consultant Radiologist.
Arian is one of few Australian-trained Radiologists to have attained subspecialty Neuroradiology certification (EDiNR) from the European Board of Neuroradiology.
He combines his clinical expertise in Neuroradiology with broad research interests in Neuro-Oncology, including intracranial gliomas, intracranial metastatic disease and post-treatment effects.
Arian completed his doctoral thesis in 2018 on “The preoperative MRI assessment of adult intracranial diffuse gliomas”. Arian’s international profile is well demonstrated by regular speaker invitations to major national and international conferences, including the European Congress of Radiology, American Society of Neuroradiology and Asian-Oceanian Congress of Neuroradiology.
He has authored 48 peer-reviewed manuscripts, the majority as first or senior author. Arian has also contributed to the fields of Radiology and Neuro-Oncology through a variety of national clinical leadership roles, including current roles on the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiology (RANZCR) Faculty of Clinical Radiology Council, RANZCR Clinical Radiology Research Committee and COGNO (Cooperative Trials Group for Neuro-Oncology) Scientific Advisory Committee.
In 2018 Arian received the prestigious MSD Hubert Stuerzl Memorial Educational Award, the major national award of COGNO. Arian is the only Radiologist to have received this award and it pays great recognition to the contribution he has made to Neuro-Oncology research.
Arian was also awarded a Peter MacCallum Cancer Foundation Discovery Partner Fellowship in 2019. The fellowship allowed Arian to further expand the scope of his research and cement his passion for clinical research in Neuro-Oncology.
Aravind S. Ravi Kumar has deservedly been appointed to Honorary Clinical Associate Professor in the Sir Peter MacCallum Department of Oncology at the University of Melbourne.
Aravind S. Ravi Kumar has been appointed to Honorary Clinical Associate Professor in the Sir Peter MacCallum Department of Oncology at the University of Melbourne in recognition of his years of service to oncology.
Associate Professor Aravind S. Ravi Kumar commenced working at Peter Mac as a nuclear medicine physician in 2016 to pursue his clinical and research interest in theranostics.
Aravind gained his fellowship with the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (FRACP) in 2003 and worked at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital for 12 years. While there, he rose to the position of acting Deputy Director.
Throughout his career Aravind has participated in over a dozen clinical trials and has authorship of over 50 peer-reviewed publications. His publications include practice changing and highly cited research on Lu-PSMA therapy in metastatic prostate cancer.
Aravind has achieved both national and international peer recognition. He has designed and supervised research which has led to two of his trainees receiving the Australian registrar research award. In 2018 Aravind received the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) Image of the Year Award.
Aravind is well regarded and respected for his research with over 20 invitations to present at national and international conferences, and reviews manuscripts for ten journals.
He also makes a significant contribution to nuclear medicine specialist training through his roles at the Nuclear Medicine Specialist Society and the joint nuclear medicine training committee of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and the Royal Australia and New Zealand College of Radiologists (RACP/RANZCR).
Aravind has chaired the joint college committee for nuclear medicine training in Australasia from 2013 to 2017. During his time as chair he was responsible for overseeing the training and certification of all specialists in nuclear medicine across Australia and New Zealand. Aravind introduced innovations to the training program such as theranostics training, and the oral assessment task.
Aravind takes great pleasure in developing medical trainees and scientific colleagues. He takes great pride in having seen many go on to highly successful careers.
He has been the formal specialist college supervisor for over two dozen trainees undergoing ‘core advanced training’ in nuclear medicine. He has also supervised at least the same number of ‘non-core’ trainees, and numerous visiting international fellows and radiology trainees.
Currently, Aravind is the nuclear medicine lead in an innovative investigator-initiated international multi-centre trial exploring the role of Lu-PSMA theranostics in earlier stage oligometastatic prostate cancer. Aravind is also the nuclear medicine principal investigator for the ENZA-P randomized phase II study at Peter Mac. The study uses PSMA as a therapeutic agent and prognostic indicator in men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer treated with enzalutamide.
Aravind is a Peter Mac faculty member for the “Your Thoughts Matter” program because he believes in clear compassionate communication with patients. “Your Thoughts Matter” is an evidence based program aimed at enhancing communication with patients so staff can focus on “what matters to them” as well as “what is the matter with them”.