Push for Victorian research into our deadliest cancers

Victorians being treated for cancers with low survival rates are the focus of three new research studies aiming to turn around the statistics and improve quality of life.

Victorians being treated for cancers with low survival rates are the focus of three new research studies aiming to turn around the statistics and improve quality of life.

Researchers will test whether an at-home exercise program can improve the health and wellbeing of lung cancer patients, under the state government funded program run through Cancer Council Victoria’s Grants-in-Aid program.

Scientists are working on creating a new treatment for gastric cancer, which harnesses the body’s own immune system to fight the tumour.

NEW STUDY LOOKS AT CANCER IN PREGNANCY

SCIENTISTS DISCOVER WHAT FUELS CANCER CELLS

FUNDRAISING DECIDES FATE OF KIDS WITH RARE CANCERS

Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre’s Dr Nick Clemons is leading the development of a “liquid biopsy” to more accurately diagnose the stages of oesophageal cancer.

This blood test, already used in breast cancer to detect DNA shed by the cancer into the bloodstream, aims to better determine who should receive what treatment.

Victorian Health Minister Jenny Mikakos.

“This year 1500 Australians will be diagnosed and only one in five of those will be alive in five years,” Dr Clemons said.

“CT scans won’t always pick up if the tumour has already spread, because it’s not sensitive enough. But these blood tests are much more sensitive.”

Dr Clemons’s team will recruit about 200 patients to test the blood test in comparison to standard more invasive diagnostic way, and follow their progress over three years.

Victorian Health Minister Jenny Mikakos said given that these low-survival cancers accounted for almost 20 per cent of all cancer diagnoses, but attributed to more than 40 per cent of cancer deaths each year, it was vital new treatment options were explored for low survival cancers.