The past few weeks have included some significant milestones for the VCCC Alliance, and I’ve enjoyed celebrating both historic and recent initiatives that show how far collaboration in the cancer sector has come since our inception.
Importantly, our cornerstone Research and Education Lead program marked its 10-year anniversary. The appointment of the first Leads – Prof Jon Emery, Prof Andrew Roberts AM and myself – was announced in 2015 by then Minister for Health the Hon Jill Hennessey.
The program has grown into the Clinical Translational Network, a faculty-sized group of leads and deputy leads. And in this edition of Alliance, we announce 13 new honorary deputy lead positions.
I’m proud to say that 64 per cent of these positions across the network are held by women. Of 21 Research and Education Leads, 11 are men and 10 are women. Meanwhile, 12 of 13 deputy lead positions are women.
We also introduced the first Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Research and Education Lead, A/Prof Kalinda Griffith, who made some incredibly poignant remarks at our 10-year anniversary celebration. You can read her full speech in this edition. While A/Prof Griffiths steps away from her role for 12 months, we have welcomed two co-leads and I’m excited by the leadership and perspectives that Louise Lyons and Prof Jacinta Elston will bring in their time with the alliance.
Special thanks to Prof Roberts AM who, at the anniversary event, provided an excellent overview of the Research and Education Lead program from its early beginnings until now. It was a great reminder of the incredible amount of work that went into establishing collaborations across tumour streams and across organisations. Initiatives like the Blood Cancer Forum started by Prof Roberts are also now about to mark 10 years. This is just one example of the many research and education programs started by each Lead that have had an impact on patients’ lives by clinicians and researchers working closely together.
The VCCC Alliance has been a trailblazer in many areas of cancer and our leadership in involving consumers at every step and in every program is one of our greatest achievements. This week, our lead role in the collaborative Cancer Consumer-led Research Partnership celebrated another milestone as we officially launched the leadership program component – Lived from Lived Experience – with our partners. Thank you to Monash Partners Comprehensive Cancer Consortium, Cancer Council Victoria, Regional Trials Network – Victoria and the University of Melbourne for joining us in this collaboration, funded by the Victorian Government through the Department of Health, to amplify the voice of consumer leaders. More than 60 consumers were in attendance – a testament to the momentum behind this movement that will help transform outcomes for cancer patients across Victoria.
The draft National Health and Medical Research Strategy 2026-2036 has been published for public consultation. This is an important document to lay the foundation for improving health outcomes for Australians in the years ahead. The VCCC Alliance was established to drive better cancer outcomes though research-led care, so it is important for us to advocate for an optimal strategy for research and research translation in cancer that represents the highest area of health burden for the Australian people. We will be submitting a response supported by our Cancer Research Advisory Committee. I encourage you to provide feedback through the government process and also please feel free to email me directly with your feedback to assist with our submission.
The Newsweek survey-based rankings are just out and it’s great to see three VCCC Alliance health services out of a total four Victorian health services listed in the rankings for oncology (seven across Australia overall). Peter Mac came in at number 14 for oncology and it is notable just how many Victorian health services are recognised across all categories. Great work by many across the Alliance to build our international reputation
Prof Grant McArthur AO
Chief Executive Officer
