Federal government funding for new cancer research institute at Cabrini Health in Malvern

Scores of Victorians will be added to clinical trials as part of a federal government funding boost for a new cancer research institute in Melbourne’s southeast.

Scores of Victorians will be added to clinical trials as part of a federal government funding boost for a new cancer research institute in Melbourne’s southeast.

The non-profit Research Institute of Cancer will be built at Cabrini Health’s Malvern hospital, in a bid to bring together researchers and clinicians.

Health Minister Greg Hunt will on Wednesday announce $3 million for the state-of-the-art centre, with the hospital’s new wing due to open in months.

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An additional $2 million will be spent on the Cabrini Cancer Wellness and Exercise Centre, while another million dollars will set up a tertiary referral and satellite research centre at Rosebud Hospital.

Cabrini’s Gandel Wing will open in July.

Cabrini Health chief executive Dr Michael Walsh said the institute would research new treatments to allow patients to “live longer lives with less pain and discomfort”.

“Cabrini’s new Gandel Wing, due to open in July this year, will provide expert, holistic care with people at the heart,” he said.

The wing, already under construction, will include a new radiotherapy service, an expanded day oncology service and an inpatient oncology ward.

The funding, in next week’s Budget, is part of the $496 million health package announced by the government on Monday.

It will include a major boost for a string of cancer services, including $80 million for Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre to become a global hub for the radical CAR-T cell therapy.

Health Minister Greg Hunt said an extra 180 patients would undergo clinical trials as a result of the Cabrini funding.

Health Minister Greg Hunt. Picture: Darren Leigh Roberts

“The Cabrini Research Institute of Cancer will be integrated within Cabrini’s Malvern hospital, enabling researchers and clinicians to work together, giving them the best chance of developing breakthroughs and delivering better health outcomes for patients,” Mr Hunt said.

Jobs and Industrial Relations Minister Kelly O’Dwyer, whose Higgins electorate covers the Malvern hospital, said: “If we don’t invest adequately in research, we are condemning tomorrow’s generation to today’s treatments.”

More than 48,000 Australians died from cancer last year.

It is estimated that 145,000 new cases of cancer will be diagnosed this year — three times the number of cases in 1982.

But the latest Cancer in Australia report found five-year survival rates have risen from 50 per cent in 1986–1990 to 69 per cent in 2011–2015.

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@moniquehore