Prognostic Factors Following A First Episode Of Central Nervous System Demyelination Suggestive Of Multiple Sclerosis.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$719,475.00
Summary
Multiple sclerosis is the second most common cause of neurological morbidity in young Australians after trauma. Knowing who will progress to develop multiple sclerosis after a first attack and at what rate they will progress is an important question as it will allow us to target treatment to those at greatest risk and modify a person's lifestyle to reduce the risk of developing MS or slow their rate of progression.
Analysis Of Gene Amplification-loss And Methylation Associated With Progression To Metastatic Colorectal Cancer
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$620,197.00
Summary
Many bowel cancers can be removed by surgery, but in many cases the cancer reoccurs. While chemotherapy can reduce the chance of recurrence, it can produce significant side effects. Currently there are few markers to indicate change of recurrence, therefore deciding who should, or should not receive chemotherapy is difficult to decide. This study will analyse differences in DNA from patients that do and do not relapse, to guide future decisions on patients who will benefit from chemotherapy.
Predictors Of Treatment Outcomes Following Anti-vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) Therapy For Neovascular AMD.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$240,277.00
Summary
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the most common cause of severe, irreversible loss of vision amongst elderly populations in the developed world. Bleeding in the retina destroys central vision. New treatments have been developed to stop this bleeding. However not all patients benefit equally, with some still losing vision. This project aims to investigate what determines how well an individual responds to treatment, in particular, how genes might influence the response.
Incidence And Prognosis Of Metastatic Breast Cancer: A Population-based Data Linkage Study
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$97,700.00
Summary
This project will provide the first Australian population-based estimates of metastaticbreast cancer (MBC) incidence and survival in women with an initial diagnosis of early stage cancer that reflect current treatment practices. This evidence will help: women with MBC and their clinicians to make decisions about treatment and plan supportive care; researchers planning trials of MBC therapies, and future planning of cancer services.
Prognostic Importance Of Androgen Receptors In Epithelium And Stroma In Early Stage Prostate Cancer
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$348,750.00
Summary
The use of serum prostate specific antigen (PSA) to screen asymptomatic men for prostate cancer has reduced the stage of disease at diagnosis. The majority of tumours are now small and potentially organ-confined. The use of nomograms, algorithms based on preoperative clinical features of these patients (serum PSA level, Gleason grade, clinical stage) has facilitated this process, but is imperfect as 20-30% of patients experience disease relapse within 5-7 years. Tumours with similar preoperative ....The use of serum prostate specific antigen (PSA) to screen asymptomatic men for prostate cancer has reduced the stage of disease at diagnosis. The majority of tumours are now small and potentially organ-confined. The use of nomograms, algorithms based on preoperative clinical features of these patients (serum PSA level, Gleason grade, clinical stage) has facilitated this process, but is imperfect as 20-30% of patients experience disease relapse within 5-7 years. Tumours with similar preoperative clinical features have markedly different outcomes, reinforcing the inadequacy of current approaches to determining whether or not an individual patient has organ-confined disease. A new approach is to incorporate into the standard diagnostic nomograms, biological features from preoperative core biopsy linked to the process of disease relapse, and which independently predict patient outcome risk group. Our preliminary studies using a small hypothesis-generating cohort of patients with early stage prostate cancer determined that elevated levels of androgen receptors (AR) in malignant epithelial cells and reduced levels of AR in peritumoral stromal cells independently predict disease relapse after surgery. In this project, AR measurements will be analysed in independent cohorts of patients derived from two Australian institutions to determine whether the predictive value is maintained across multi-Institutional cohorts. Selected androgen-regulated markers of tumour growth and spread (proliferative, apoptotic, metastatic) will be examined in microarrayed postoperative tissue samples. The postoperative markers will be examined for independence of prediction of relapse. Independent markers will be examined for ability to increase predictive efficacy in standard diagnostic nomograms. Levels of the two markers with greatest predictive value will be measured in preoperative core biopsies and tested for predictive ability as a prelude to clinical practice.Read moreRead less
Can Decision Analytic Modelling Promote Clinical Translation Of Personalised Medicine Markers For Oncology Drugs?
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$69,893.00
Summary
Personalised medicine is an approach that has great potential to improve healthcare. There has been limited success to date, however, in utilising proposed tests in the clinical. It is proposed that use of mathematical models early in the development of personalised medicine tests will allow early understanding of the value that the test will have for patients and society. Such insight will help build a strong case to undertake the research required before personalised medicine can be more widel ....Personalised medicine is an approach that has great potential to improve healthcare. There has been limited success to date, however, in utilising proposed tests in the clinical. It is proposed that use of mathematical models early in the development of personalised medicine tests will allow early understanding of the value that the test will have for patients and society. Such insight will help build a strong case to undertake the research required before personalised medicine can be more widely used to improve treatment for cancer.Read moreRead less
All current clinical practice guidelines for the management of acute low back pain (LBP) agree that acute LBP has an excellent prognosis with most cases recovering within 4-6 weeks. However, the information on prognosis is contradictory and in fact chronic low back pain could develop in as many as 56% of those with acute low back pain. There is also agreement among the guidelines that the rare cases of serious disease (eg cancer) can be detected with a routine clinical examination but no study h ....All current clinical practice guidelines for the management of acute low back pain (LBP) agree that acute LBP has an excellent prognosis with most cases recovering within 4-6 weeks. However, the information on prognosis is contradictory and in fact chronic low back pain could develop in as many as 56% of those with acute low back pain. There is also agreement among the guidelines that the rare cases of serious disease (eg cancer) can be detected with a routine clinical examination but no study has evaluated the accuracy of the complete clinical assessment, and there is only limited evidence on components of the clinical assessment. We will therefore investigate the 1 year prognosis of LBP and the accuracy of the clinical assessment for detecting serious disease in the back pain population. Our study will provide the first reliable estimates of prognosis of acute LBP and the accuracy of widely recommended clinical assessment procedures and thereby allow appropriate allocation of funds to this enormous problem.Read moreRead less
Lung cancer is the most frequent cause of cancer deaths in many Western countries, including ours. Lung cancer is the third leading cause of death of Australians and the fifth leading cause of burden of disease in Australia. With exposure to cancer-causing agents such as cigarette smoke, parts of the lung may suffer permanent damage that increases the risk of lung cancer. Many of these changes include the genes in air passages and lung tissue. A certain change (called methylation) affects some g ....Lung cancer is the most frequent cause of cancer deaths in many Western countries, including ours. Lung cancer is the third leading cause of death of Australians and the fifth leading cause of burden of disease in Australia. With exposure to cancer-causing agents such as cigarette smoke, parts of the lung may suffer permanent damage that increases the risk of lung cancer. Many of these changes include the genes in air passages and lung tissue. A certain change (called methylation) affects some genes in the lungs, but it is not yet known how common this change is or how it affects smokers and people who have developed lung cancer. We will collect blood and sputum specimens from lung cancer patients to test to see if methylation is present, and also specimens from when patients have a routine bronchoscopy as part of their initial tests. If they have an operation for lung cancer, then the part of the lung that is removed and not needed for diagnosis will also be tested for methylation. In this study, we will study whether methylation is an accurate test for lung cancer, whether it is present in parts of the lung near from the lung cancer, and whether it predicts better or worse results after treatment. We hope that this research study will provide new information about the diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer.Read moreRead less