Associate Professor Gavin Wright, VCCC Alliance Research and Education Lead, Lung Cancer is the new Chair of Cancer Australia’s Lung Cancer Advisory Group.
The advisory group has a mission to provide clinical input and strategic advice in relation to the early design of a potential national lung cancer screening program for people at high risk of lung cancer in Australia and provide ongoing input to increasing awareness and uptake of Cancer Australia’s lung cancer resources.
Advisory Group members are appointed for their expertise and include lung cancer consumers, health professionals and researchers nationwide.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of death from cancer for both men and women in Australia and the number of new cases diagnosed is continuing to increase year by year. It is estimated that in the first 10 years of a lung cancer screening program in Australia, over 70 per cent of all screen-detected lung cancers would be diagnosed at an early stage and over 12,000 deaths would be prevented.
...over 70 per cent of all screen-detected lung cancers would be diagnosed at an early stage and over 12,000 deaths would be prevented.
In mid-2021 the Australian Government announced an investment of $ 6.9 million to commence the early scoping of a potential national lung cancer screening program to increase early diagnosis and improve survivorship and lung cancer outcomes.
Professor Wright said, “It’s a great honour to be asked to Chair the Lung Cancer Advisory Group and it is a great synergy with my work as the VCCC Alliance lead for lung cancer, particularly the areas of lung cancer screening and addressing equity issues in lung cancer.”
Professor Wright is an advocate for multidisciplinary and multi-centre collaborations and is recognised as a pioneer of minimally invasive and robotic thoracic surgery in Australasia. As a specialist thoracic surgeon, he has appointments at St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne, Royal Melbourne Hospital and Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. He has a PhD in molecular biology of lung cancer.
After training in Germany in 2011 he performed the first robotic thymectomy at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.
In 2017, he established a robotic lobectomy program at Royal Melbourne Hospital. The following year he performed the first robotic surgery at St Vincent’s Private Hospital and established a private-public partnership robotic program for St Vincent’s Public Hospital to allow registrar teaching on the dual console.
He is a proctor and trainer of thoracic surgeons seeking credentialling or transitioning to robotic surgery in Australia and he runs a large program of clinical trials and translational research including the DURATION Study which aims to develop and validate molecular predictive and prognostic markers to improve outcomes for patients with the disease.
For more information on the VCCC Alliance R&E Lead, Lung Cancer program, contact
Dr Jasper De Boer, or to discuss the Cancer Australia Lung Cancer Advisory Group contact Associate Professor Gavin Wright.
