Dear colleagues,
Welcome to the first Alliance of 2026. This edition really gives the flavour of what lies ahead – a year packed with activity to transform and improve the lives of people affected by cancer.
Already, the VCCC Alliance has held an agenda-setting World Cancer Day webinar involving the voice of lived experience and colleagues working across the intersectionality of cancer in disability and mental health. Louise Pearson, who experiences blindness and has had multiple cancer diagnoses across her lifetime, shared her story of navigating cancer with vision impairments. She was joined by experts from: Cancer Council Victoria; the School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne; the Victorian Collaborative Centre for Mental Health and Wellbeing; Scope and the Royal Melbourne Hospital.
The VCCC Alliance believes every Victorian deserves access to world-class cancer care — no matter who they are or where they live. The World Cancer Day webinar reflected this, and our strategic and educational programs champion equity across the board: whether it’s our Data Connect research work uncovering delays to diagnosis and variations in care across Victoria, our national Regional Cancer Forums, or our Equity programs. These programs are expanding palliative care, improving equitable research approaches, building regional Victoria cancer networks and working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-led organisations to support better cancer outcomes for their communities.
On this note, I’m delighted to be joining a stellar line up of speakers and panellists at the upcoming Advancing Equity in Cancer Outcomes Symposium next month. The symposium will feature keynote speakers from leaders in the space and showcase progress on our funded programs. A First Nations gathering will be held the day before, focused on growing First Nations cancer research.
In this edition, we provide an update on the Care Plus Extend initiative providing earlier supportive care – palliative care – in regional and metropolitan areas to lung, sarcoma and colon cancer patients. Program co-leads Prof Jennifer Philip (University of Melbourne) and Prof Brian Le (Peter Mac) are featured in the Symposium program (with Prof Philip as co-chair along with Prof Jacinta Elston), so don’t miss this opportunity to attend in person or online.
This event is just one example of what makes the VCCC Alliance unique and a benefit to our members and the wider Victorian cancer sector – our dedicated Education program works hand-in-hand with our strategic programs to communicate the findings of our funded work, educating the cancer sector.
But we don’t just feature our work – we regularly program and feature innovative local, national and international speakers.
It’s a vehicle to showcase and share your cancer research, discoveries, and innovative approaches to treatment and care. Why not get in touch? We’d love to hear from you.
Prof Sanchia Aranda AM
