I watched world leaders gather for the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow last week, and despite the scale of the challenge, I was inspired by the call to action from Sir David Attenborough in his address. I thought about our own challenges in healthcare and the parallels for our alliance, so reliant on people working together to effect change.
Sir David talked about the climate story as being one of inequality and it is something I think about often as we seek parity in cancer prevention, detection and treatment. What I am heartened by is that despite the pandemic and the toll on our sector, our alliance and its partners are making good progress in our pillars of Discovery, Acceleration, Equity and Leadership. Of the dozens of projects now underway, some are particularly exciting as they meet a specific patient need, expand our regional programs, and are addressing patient groups that are currently underserved.
Under the Discovery pillar, the Novel Therapies program aims to improve access to early phase clinical trials and ensure more drugs, especially those developed in Victoria enter early phase development so that patients have greater treatment options. The new Scientific Discoveries to Clinic project has a survey closing this week to understand the needs of researchers and clinicians to help shape the future of research translation and drug development.
Under the Acceleration pillar, the Clinical Trials Innovations program aims to strengthen clinical trial participation through the adoption and conduct of new clinical trial methods, one being registry trials. There is tremendous potential for the expansion of registry trials into more areas of cancer research including radiation and surgical oncology while also boosting access and capacity for clinical trials in our regions. This work led by Professor Peter Gibbs and Co-Chair Marian Lieschke from Parkville Cancer Clinical Trials Unit, involves many across the alliance as well as Monash Partners Comprehensive Cancer Consortium (MPCCC) and the ReVITALiSE project through the Regional Trials Network.
Under the Equity pillar, the Regional Innovations program has identified a need to prioritise a project that could improve outcomes for regional patients with less common cancers. Led by Associate Professors Niall Corcoran and Ian Collins, we are in the early stages of establishing a virtual hub for the Less Common Cancers project in penile and testicular cancer that will enable access for regional patients to registry-based studies, biomarker studies and clinical trials. This project will bring together a critical mass of experts from across Victoria to support educational needs, access to clinical trials and translational research in penile and testicular cancers, with an opportunity, once evaluated, to apply the framework more broadly to other less common cancers.
Under the Leadership pillar, the Nurse-led Research Hub pioneered and led by Professor Mei Krishnasamy aims to diversify and strengthen research capability in the nursing sector. Our dedicated 12-week training program, which brings together nurses with a passion for research to drive improvements in patient care was unable to proceed this year due to the unrelenting pressures of COVID on the nursing workforce. Nevertheless, I am delighted at the adaptability of our team and nursing colleagues, who have been able to move forward with online workshops and webinars covering topics from implementation science to evidence-based co-design and working with vulnerable populations. These have filled quickly, demonstrating an appetite for professional development opportunities in this group despite the current challenges of the pandemic.
With equity such a high priority, I am thrilled to welcome the newest member of our Distributed Leadership team this month. Dr Kalinda Griffiths has been appointed the VCCC Alliance Research & Education Lead for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Health. Dr Griffiths is an exceptional, nationally regarded leader in Aboriginal Health. With over 20 years’ experience as a cancer researcher, with expertise in data governance, development and application, Kalinda brings great depth of knowledge, connections and the potential for growing critical research funding through this new role across both our alliance and the nation.
Central to our Strategic Program Plan are new programs of work activated in Value-based Cancer Care, Health Equity and Regional Innovations. We now have engaged leadership right across the alliance to proceed confidently with our plans for 2021-24.
Recently the NHMRC announced outcomes of this year's Ideas and Synergy grants. It is always a bittersweet time. Some brilliant research, notably including emerging cancer researchers across the VCCC Alliance was funded, and I sincerely congratulate them on this achievement. Some truly outstanding research proposals however, did not get up, despite ranking highly in the reviews. This is disappointing but also a reflection of the depth of talent and potential we have in this state. Victoria continues to achieve funding rates well above the national average with over $130M committed to medical research in our VCCC Alliance members and Monash University - almost half the total national funding awarded.
Finally, some dates. I am delighted to host Professor Nathan Cherny, who is visiting briefly from Shaare Zekek Medical Center in Israel early in December. Nathan is Chair of the ESMO-Magnitude of Clinical Benefit Scale Working Group. Part of the group’s work has been a reference tool now used by many diverse stakeholders in addressing the issue of value in cancer medicines and treatments.
Nathan will join us for meetings and a seminar, Taking off the rose coloured glasses - and the peril if we don’t, where he will explore how to critically evaluate clinical research studies and trials for impact. Details will be on the events page of our website very soon.
Also in the first week of December, our VCCC Alliance Cancer Consumer Advisory Committee will host the annual VCCC Alliance Consumer Engagement Forum featuring a keynote address from Professor Sanchia Aranda Deputy Chair of the VCCC Alliance. The forum will examine the potential of consumer partnerships in grant funding and education initiatives. Our consumer leaders have designed a program involving funding agencies to discuss how consumer involvement is included, assessed and also the future scope for consumer-led projects.
Wishing you all well, especially students and parents who have prevailed through the 2021 exam and assessment period in very challenging circumstances.
Prof Grant McArthur
Executive Director
