Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre to become global lifesaving cancer treatment hub under Budget boost

Melbourne’s Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre will become a global hub for a radical and lifesaving new cancer treatment under a half-billion-dollar boost to health funding for Victoria.

Melbourne’s Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre will become a global hub for a radical and lifesaving new cancer treatment. Picture: Tony Gough

EXCLUSIVE: Melbourne’s Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre will become a global hub for a radical and lifesaving new cancer treatment under a half-billion- dollar boost to health funding for Victoria in the federal Budget.

A new centre at Peter Mac will offer the cancer-killing CAR-T cell therapy, in which a patient’s immune cells are removed, re-engineered and replaced to fight the tumours.

The development will be a welcome relief for Australian cancer patients who currently have to travel to the United States to receive the treatment, at a cost of about $500,000.

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Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Health Minister Greg Hunt will on Monday announce that next week’s Budget will deliver a $496 million injection of health funding in Victoria.

Not only will there be $80 million for the Peter Mac centre to revolutionise cancer treatment, and position Australia as a global leader, there will also be $40 million to build a new paediatric emergency department in Geelong, eight new Headspace services, and a boost for medical research.

Health Minister Greg Hunt and Prime Minister Scott Morrison will announce that next week’s Budget will deliver a $496 million injection of health funding in Victoria. Picture: AAP/Joel Carrett

Mr Morrison said the new national cancer treatment centre at Peter Mac would provide access to treatments previously available only overseas.

“This investment will be life-changing for so many of our sickest Australians, including many children battling cancer,” the Prime Minister said.

Mr Hunt said the package would ensure Victoria was a “global health and medical research destination”.

“It will put Melbourne at the global forefront of cancer research and give our patients the best chance of treating and beating cancer,” he said.

Mr Morrison said: “Our strong economic management means we can provide world-leading treatment options for patients in Melbourne, who have previously had to travel to the United States.

“Today’s Health and Medical Research Plan cements Melbourne’s place as a global leader in health and medical research, creating jobs while providing support for Australian patients.”

Melbourne’s Lauren Krelshem was diagnosed with leukaemia at the age of seven. Despite chemotherapy and bone marrow transplants, she relapsed twice and, at 22, was on the brink of death.

Lauren Krelshem was diagnosed with leukaemia at the age of seven. Picture: Sarah Matray

Three years ago, she entered a trial of the CAR T-cell therapy, becoming the first Australian to have the radical treatment. Her blood was flown to Seattle to be genetically modified, and was then reinjected.

Now 24, she is free of cancer and pursuing her lifelong dream of acting.

“It just gives people the chance to live … I’m young; I had not done anything with my life, and I just told myself: ‘No, I can’t die. I’m not ready’,” she said.

“It just gives people options, and the more options we have, the more we are going to be able to tackle this thing and to make cancer, or at least leukaemia, non-existent or at the very least, maybe some day cancer will just be like the cold or flu.”

Lauren Krelshem, 24, is free of cancer and pursuing her lifelong dream of acting. Picture: Sarah Matray

Ms Krelshem said the disease had interrupted so much of her life, and she was now making up for lost time, working part-time and taking acting classes.

“I have found a boyfriend and we’ve moved in together, which is pretty cool, because there was a time in my life when I thought I might never experience those things,” Ms Krelshem said.

Peter Mac will commit $25 million to the new centre, bringing the total investment to $105 million.

More than 50 patients a year will be treated in clinical trials of CAR T-cell therapy and other immunotherapies.

The centre will create more than 140 new manufacturing jobs and 15 medical research positions.

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