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Positive results for the use of neoadjuvant cemiplimab in people with cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC) were published in New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) and presented at the European Society of Medical Oncology held in Paris this week.
Positive results for the use of neoadjuvant cemiplimab in people with cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC) were published in New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) and presented at the European Society of Medical Oncology held in Paris this week.
Professor Danny Rischin, Director of the Division of Cancer Medicine and Head of the Department of Medical Oncology at Peter Mac said; “Using neoadjuvant cemiplimab prior to surgery in locally advanced cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma resulted in remarkable results with disappearance of all evidence of cancer prior to surgery in half the patients.
“This therapy has the potential to alter the way we treat locally advanced skin squamous cell cancers as it may allow less extensive and less disfiguring surgery and further studies may establish whether this approach decreases the need for radiotherapy.
Cemiplimab is a type of cancer treatment known as a PD-1 inhibitor that works by blocking the cancers ability to hide from the immune system.
The treatment was tested in a large international Phase II trial involving people that had stage II to IV resectable CSCC which is the second most common form of skin cancer.
In the confirmatory, multicenter, single-arm Phase II trial, 79 patients received up to four fixed doses of cemiplimab every 3 weeks prior to surgery, with 62 receiving all 4 doses and 70 undergoing surgery.
“Peter Mac’s involvement in the trial allowed our skin squamous cell cancer patients access to this promising treatment," said Professor Danny Rischin.
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Supercars driver Thomas Randle has delivered a big win for ONTrac at Peter Mac, generously donating more than $50,000 to the service supporting young people with cancer.
The funds were raised by Randle, and his Tickford Racing team, over the weekend of the Sandown Super Sprint (Aug 19-21) round of the Supercars series.
His No.55 Mustang had Peter Mac purple stripes for the event, and Randle easily overtook his initial $10,000 target.
When the checkered flag fell, he had raised $50,669 for a service that Randle is very familiar with.
ONTrac at Peter Mac is a multidisciplinary service which provides care for adolescents and young adults affected by cancer.
Randle, now 26, was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 2020 and was successfully treated at Peter Mac.
“After our awesome fundraiser we did for the Sandown SuperSprint with the Castrol Peter Mac livery on the race car, and the fundraiser we had, we’re here to present the cheque for over $50,000," Randle said during a recent visit to hand over the giant cheque.
“Which is pretty amazing to be standing here saying that ... and I can’t wait to do it all again next year.”
Receiving the giant cheque was Kate Torney, CEO of the Peter MacCallum Cancer Foundation, who described the support from Randle as “extraordinary”.
Tickford Racing also hosted a number of young cancer patients and Peter Mac staff at Sandown, and took them for hotlaps. It was second year the team had done this at the Sandown race meeting.
“The generosity and the real understanding that Thomas has of the value of ONTrac, and the way he is generously giving back, has been just fantastic,” Ms Torney said.
“The whole thing was so exciting for our patients here, and so humbling to see Thomas and his family really rally to give back to Peter Mac. We are so very grateful.”
Among hundreds of donations from race fans there were also signifcant contributions from Betty Klimenko, Castrol, Snowy River Caravans, ACT Fence Hire, Infinium Advisory, Herzog Steel and TPF Sports. The bonnet of Randle’s car was also auctioned, tipping in $3,100.
Read more on Tickford Racing’s website.
Contact
For more information or to arrange an interview, call the Communications team on 0417 123 048.
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Call for applications for the 2023 Peter Mac Foundation Postgraduate Award for a PhD in cancer research at Peter Mac in 2023.
The Peter Mac Foundation Postgraduate Award aims to promote excellence in cancer research by supporting outstanding PhD students who demonstrate academic excellence and leadership qualities throughout their candidature at Peter Mac.
These awards are named in honour of long-term supporters of Peter Mac, including; Rosie Lew, Robert Kirby, Lester Peters and Stewart Barron. We acknowledge their tireless work supporting the Peter Mac Foundation’s fundraising activities.
Applications close 5:00pm Monday 07 November 2022.
Eligibility:
The 2023 award is open to students who:
- Will be full-time ‘local’ students (Australian citizen, permanent resident or New Zealand citizen) OR are international students who are graduates of an Australian university;
- Can demonstrate their potential research excellence through previous studies and/or experience;
- Meet university eligibility requirements to commence a PhD based at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in 2023.
- Can provide evidence of submission of a Round 1 University application for 2023 PhD candidature.
Students jointly supervised by across-institute supervisors will only be eligible if their principal supervisor is based at Peter Mac and the majority of their studies will be completed on site at Peter Mac.
Conditions of Award:
This scholarship provides award of $40,000, comprised of:
- $37,000 per year living allowance, to be administered through the University.
- $3,000 per year student professional development support costs (travel, courses etc) administered through Peter Mac.
- This scholarship is awarded for a maximum of 3.5 years, subject to candidature extension.
Note: Students awarded a university scholarship may receive the Peter Mac award as a top-up scholarship of $10,000 per year living allowance and $3,000 per year student professional development support costs. Students in receipt of a competitive scholarship equal to the full amount of the award (eg NHMRC) may receive the Peter Mac award as the $3,000 per year student professional development support costs.
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Peter Mac's Dr Luc Furic is part of a research team awarded a Prostate Cancer Research Program Translational Science Award by the Department of Defence (DoD) in the US.
Peter Mac's Dr Luc Furic is part of a research team awarded a Prostate Cancer Research Program Translational Science Award by the Department of Defence (DoD) in the US.
Researchers at Peter Mac and The Australian National University, working with biotechnology company Pimera, will use the over USD $1 million grant to boost their collaboration towards bringing PMR-116, a small molecule drug, to the clinic for prostate cancer patients with advanced disease.
PMR-116 is a second-generation inhibitor of RNA polymerase I (Pol I) transcription. Inhibitors of its kind have shown therapeutic potential for cancer treatment as they suppress protein synthesis, a biological process crucial for cancer cells to thrive.
"The significant support from this DoD Award will allow us to further characterise biomarkers of response to PMR-116 and perform the groundwork required to bring PMR-116 to the clinic for prostate cancer patients," said Dr Furic, Head of Translational Prostate Cancer Research at Peter Mac and Principal Investigator of the awarded project.
Around the globe, prostate cancer is the second most common cancer and the fourth leading cause of cancer death in men.
"Our preclinical data demonstrate that PMR-116 is now the best-in-class Pol I inhibitor and has shown remarkable efficacy in treating human metastatic prostate cancer in animal models," said Professor Ross Hannan, Head of the Cancer Therapeutics Group at the John Curtin School of Medical Research and Partner Principal Investigator of the funded research.
Currently, PMR-116 is in a Phase Ia/b clinical trial being conducted in Australia to assess its safety and tolerability.
The DoD grant, which is being jointly administered through the University of Melbourne and the Australian National University, will bolster upcoming research that studies the efficacy of PMR-116 in patient-derived models, investigates novel combination therapies, and identifies biomarkers of response from the ongoing Phase I trial of PMR-116 in patients with advanced malignancies.
"We look forward to advancing PMR-116 through dose escalation, expanding into additional indications, and into Phase II to address several large cancer markets and improve patient outcomes," said Mustapha Haddach, Founder and CEO at Pimera.
Peter Mac's Dr Luc Furic is part of a research team awarded a Prostate Cancer Research Program Translational Science Award by the Department of Defence (DoD) in the US.
Researchers at Peter Mac and The Australian National University, working with biotechnology company Pimera, will use the over USD $1 million grant to boost their collaboration towards bringing PMR-116, a small molecule drug, to the clinic for prostate cancer patients with advanced disease.
PMR-116 is a second-generation inhibitor of RNA polymerase I (Pol I) transcription. Inhibitors of its kind have shown therapeutic potential for cancer treatment as they suppress protein synthesis, a biological process crucial for cancer cells to thrive.
"The significant support from this DoD Award will allow us to further characterise biomarkers of response to PMR-116 and perform the groundwork required to bring PMR-116 to the clinic for prostate cancer patients," said Dr Furic, Head of Translational Prostate Cancer Research at Peter Mac and Principal Investigator of the awarded project.
Around the globe, prostate cancer is the second most common cancer and the fourth leading cause of cancer death in men.
"Our preclinical data demonstrate that PMR-116 is now the best-in-class Pol I inhibitor and has shown remarkable efficacy in treating human metastatic prostate cancer in animal models," said Professor Ross Hannan, Head of the Cancer Therapeutics Group at the John Curtin School of Medical Research and Partner Principal Investigator of the funded research.
Currently, PMR-116 is in a Phase Ia/b clinical trial being conducted in Australia to assess its safety and tolerability.
The DoD grant, which is being jointly administered through the University of Melbourne and the Australian National University, will bolster upcoming research that studies the efficacy of PMR-116 in patient-derived models, investigates novel combination therapies, and identifies biomarkers of response from the ongoing Phase I trial of PMR-116 in patients with advanced malignancies.
"We look forward to advancing PMR-116 through dose escalation, expanding into additional indications, and into Phase II to address several large cancer markets and improve patient outcomes," said Mustapha Haddach, Founder and CEO at Pimera.
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Researchers at Peter Mac will benefit from an injection of funding from the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF).
The funding boost will help researchers across Peter Mac continue their collaborative work to improve outcomes for cancer patients across a spectrum of disease areas.
Executive Director of Cancer Research, Professor Ricky Johnstone said, “These collaborative research projects highlight the importance of working together across institutes to enhance critical thinking and expertise.
“The projects utilise the latest technologies to uncover new insights into cancer onset, progression and clinical intervention that will lead to improved outcomes for cancer patients.
”This support for medical research from the Australian Government via MRFF grants is crucial to helping breakthroughs in medical treatment to occur,” he said.
Professor Bernhard Riedel, Director of Anaesthesia, Perioperative Medicine, and Pain Medicine at Peter Mac, has received a grant to lead a project that aims to use pharmacogenomics to improve patient recovery following surgery. This grant stems from the ongoing collaboration between Dr Michelle Gerstman (PhD candidate, Consultant Anaesthetist) and Professor Bernhard Riedel at Peter Mac and Professors Andrew Somogyi (University of Adelaide) and Carl Kirkpatrick (Monash University).
“Pharmacogenomics is the study of how genetic variations affect patients’ drug responses. It provides insights into how a patient might metabolise a drug,” Professor Riedel said.
“The project will determine if it is possible to conduct pharmacogenomics testing prior to surgery. This information will then be used to tailor anaesthetic drugs based on the test results to improve safety, recovery and comfort after surgery.”
Through another MRFF grant, Peter Mac researchers will collaborate with the Doherty Institute to research appropriate antimicrobial use. Professor Karin Thursky will lead a project involving the National Centre for Infections in Cancer and collaborators across the precinct to research the use of data science to undertake appropriate antimicrobial surveillance.
The following researchers from Peter Mac also received MRFF funding to work collaboratively with different organisations:
- Professor Joe Trapani and Dr Mohamed Fareh will work with Professor Sharon Lewin from the Doherty Institute on a project entitled “mRNA-based antiviral therapeutics for SARS-CoV-2 using Cas13”
- Dr Ben Teh will work with Professor Katherine Kedzierska from the Doherty Institute to understand, “Immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 variants across age groups and vulnerable populations”
- Associate Professor Nick Clemons will collaborate with Professor Michael Brown from University of South Australia on a project to improve outcomes in patients with poor prognosis cancers. Their project is, “Gene modified pluripotent stem cells to generate and empower innate immune cells against poor-prognosis cancers.”
Contact
For more information or to arrange an interview, call the Communications team on 0417 123 048.