Simultaneous Imaging And Drug Delivery For Prostate Cancer Theranostics
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$565,205.00
Summary
Prostate cancer (PC) is the most common cancer in men over 50. The answers to the key questions in advanced PC (Who to treat, and how to treat: loco-regionally or systemically?) rest with clinical staging – something that has hitherto been very imprecise. We have generated a highly-sensitive 19F-molecular imaging agent which could help resolve both questions and create a targeted therapy, diminishing the burden of harm of today’s therapies by using nanoparticles to diagnose and treat PC.
Optimizing Lung Cancer Diagnostic And Staging Pathways Through The Innovative Use Of Thoracic Imaging
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$189,384.00
Summary
This research aims to simplify the initial work-up for lung cancer diagnosis. Currently most patients undergo complex investigations and multiple biopsies. Common imaging technology e.g. ultrasound, PET and CT scans may help choose the best and least invasive biopsy procedure. My research will explore this through three complementary studies. If positive, >10000 Australians with lung cancer will benefit each year, and the majority of them will only have to undergo one biopsy procedure.
Breast cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed in Australian women, affecting one in 8. While physical examination, mammography and ultrasound remain first-line screening tools, there are no reliable blood tests to aid diagnosis. This project aims to discover proteins in breast cancer tissue, or in the bloodstream of patients, which can be measured to provide information about the presence and severity of breast cancer. A new, reliable diagnostic test could benefit millions of women.
Molecular Determinants Of Risk, Progression And Treatment Response In Melanoma
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$8,381,820.00
Summary
Melanoma is a major Australian health problem. NSW figures for 2002 show it to be the second most common cancer in men and women. It has a disproportionately heavy impact on productive years of the life of young Australians because it is the commonest cancer in those aged 15-45 years. The investigators are all associated with the Sydney Melanoma Unit (SMU), the world�s largest clinical service dedicated to the treatment of melanoma, treating >1200 new melanoma patients annually. We have also ....Melanoma is a major Australian health problem. NSW figures for 2002 show it to be the second most common cancer in men and women. It has a disproportionately heavy impact on productive years of the life of young Australians because it is the commonest cancer in those aged 15-45 years. The investigators are all associated with the Sydney Melanoma Unit (SMU), the world�s largest clinical service dedicated to the treatment of melanoma, treating >1200 new melanoma patients annually. We have also recruited large cohorts of individuals with high susceptibility to melanoma, both familial and population-based, throughout southeastern Australia. We aim to utilise these unique, internationally-recognised resources to develop a scientific basis for 1) improved management of individuals at high risk for development and progression of melanoma, and 2) improved treatment of patients with early and disseminated melanoma. We will base this on consolidation of existing collaborative research into molecular predictors of risk, progression and treatment response in melanoma.Read moreRead less
Understanding The Variation In Frontotemporal Dementia
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$417,750.00
Summary
Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is one of the non-Alzheimer dementias which accounts for between 12 and 20% of all dementia and as much as 50% of early onset dementia. It is characterised by marked behavioural change and thus patients with this disease present a major management challenge. The cause of FTD is unknown and at present there is no effective treatment for the disease. There are a number of different clinical subtypes of FTD, namely behavioural variant, language variant, and FTD with mo ....Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is one of the non-Alzheimer dementias which accounts for between 12 and 20% of all dementia and as much as 50% of early onset dementia. It is characterised by marked behavioural change and thus patients with this disease present a major management challenge. The cause of FTD is unknown and at present there is no effective treatment for the disease. There are a number of different clinical subtypes of FTD, namely behavioural variant, language variant, and FTD with motor neuron disease (FTD+MND). Similarly there are pathological subtypes of FTD (Pick's disease, frontotemporal lobar degeneration and FTD with ubiquitin-positive MND inclusions). However, there appears to be little correspondence between these two subdivisions. The purpose of this study is to investigate the pathological differences and similarities between the different clinical subtypes of FTD. Furthermore, we will investigate the changes in brain atrophy which occur over the course of the disease to allow us to understand better the initial focus of the disease. We will also evaluate the role of cellular protein changes (ubiquitin and tau) in the pathogenesis of neuronal death. This research will allow us (i) to better diagnose and characterise FTD and (ii) establish any common mechanisms of neurodegeneration in the subtypes of FTD.Read moreRead less
Gastric Cancer: Early Detection Of Disease, Relapse And Prediction Of Extent Of Disease
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$421,800.00
Summary
Gastric cancer (GC) is the second commonest cause of cancer in the world. The mainstay of treatment for GC is surgical resection, but despite improvements in surgical interventions the mortality rate remains high. The 5 year survival rate of GC is about 30% over 5 years. Accurate staging is fundamental to the management of GC and current investigations are inadequate. It has become possible to measure the activity of thousands of genes to identify those genes that predict whether a patient will ....Gastric cancer (GC) is the second commonest cause of cancer in the world. The mainstay of treatment for GC is surgical resection, but despite improvements in surgical interventions the mortality rate remains high. The 5 year survival rate of GC is about 30% over 5 years. Accurate staging is fundamental to the management of GC and current investigations are inadequate. It has become possible to measure the activity of thousands of genes to identify those genes that predict whether a patient will survive or succumb to their disease. We propose to use gene expression profiling to predict the risk of recurrence of gastric cancer in patients. We will examine over 270 tumours and use an independent group of patients to evaluate the test. We aim to develop a test that will help the clinician decide the type of surgical resection to perform or whether to give adjuvant chemotherapy. The test may also guide the use of more specific anticancer drugs. Early detection of GC is very important because patients with early stage GC have better outcome. We have already analysed over 60 GC tumours with microarrays and found genes that are specifically expressed by the tumours that are potential candidates as cancer markers. We plan to examine more cases of GC, both to find more genes and validate our candidate genes as tumour markers. We also want to look for patterns of proteins in blood of patients that identifies GC and use this pattern to follow patient progress to treatment.Read moreRead less
Noncoding RNAs As Prognostic Markers And Therapeutic Targets In Breast Cancer
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$550,283.00
Summary
Normal human development involves a symphony of genetic changes that control the growth and differentiation of different types of cells during embryogenesis. For many years it has been assumed that most genetic information is transacted by proteins, and that the remaining 98% of the human genome that does not encode proteins was (apart from a limited amount of associated regulatory elements) largely non-functional evolutionary junk. However, this may not be the case. Recent results from our labo ....Normal human development involves a symphony of genetic changes that control the growth and differentiation of different types of cells during embryogenesis. For many years it has been assumed that most genetic information is transacted by proteins, and that the remaining 98% of the human genome that does not encode proteins was (apart from a limited amount of associated regulatory elements) largely non-functional evolutionary junk. However, this may not be the case. Recent results from our laboratory and others have shown that most of our genome and that of other mammals is actually expressed as noncoding RNA, which appears to be developmentally regulated. These RNAs (of which there appear to be tens of thousands, well outnumbering the protein-coding mRNAs) have been referred to as the hidden layer or dark matter of our genome, as they have barely been studied, but appear to play a central role in both normal and abnormal development in humans. There is now increasing evidence that many noncoding RNAs, including small regulatory RNAs called microRNAs, are perturbed in cancer and that these perturbations may be directly involved in, and be an accurate indicator of, cancer state and the direction of cancer progression. If this is true we need to understand the expression and functions of these RNAs in order to develop better diagnostics and perhaps powerful new therapeutics for cancer, based on RNA technology and generic delivery systems. This project will explore the patterns of noncoding RNA expression in normal breast development and in breast cancer, to identify those RNAs that direct or accompany the differentiation of these tissues, and to test the effects of interfering with their expression on these processes. These foundation studies lie at the leading edge of a new understanding of human genetics and cancer, and will provide a platform for future applications in medicine that utilize this information and understanding.Read moreRead less
Characterisation Of A Novel PI3-kinase Signal Terminating Enzyme In Breast Cancer.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$633,512.00
Summary
Breast cancer is the most common malignancy among females, affecting 1 in 9 women before the age of 85. Normally cells divide only when they receive a stimulus from a hormone or growth factor. The PI3K pathway which responds to these stimuli has been implicated in cancer where cells divide uncontrollably and invade surrounding tissue. We have identified a potential cancer suppressing gene, PIPP, which turns off PI3K growth signals. We aim to characterize the role of PIPP in breast cancer.
Health System Performance And Outcomes For Indigenous Australians With Cancer: A National Study.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$412,354.00
Summary
Cancer has only recently been recognised as a significant Indigenous health issue, partly because no national information has been available on the impact of cancer on Indigenous people or on health system performance for Indigenous cancer patients. Recent research in the Northern Territory has demonstrated large deficiencies in diagnosis, treatment and survival for Indigenous compared to other cancer patients. Despite imperfect data on Indigenous status, important information can be obtained ab ....Cancer has only recently been recognised as a significant Indigenous health issue, partly because no national information has been available on the impact of cancer on Indigenous people or on health system performance for Indigenous cancer patients. Recent research in the Northern Territory has demonstrated large deficiencies in diagnosis, treatment and survival for Indigenous compared to other cancer patients. Despite imperfect data on Indigenous status, important information can be obtained about health system performance for Indigenous Australians from national administrative databases and registers. This project will assess health system performance and outcome for Indigenous people with cancer at a national level for the first time. It will compare Indigenous with non-Indigenous cancer survival rates for Australia as a whole, including regional (urban-rural-remote) variations and time trends. For those states where data on stage at diagnosis and hospital treatment are available, it will also investigate the performance of diagnostic and treatment services for Indigenous cancer patients by comparing their stage at diagnosis and surgical treatment with that for non-Indigenous patients. Time trends for each of these issues will be examined using data from those states with data of adequate quality and consistency over the past 10-15 years. This project will provide the methodological basis for regular reporting of Indigenous cancer survival and related statistics in the national cancer reporting system and demonstrate that national monitoring of the acute care system for Indigenous people is possible for other conditions. The results of this research will directly inform acute care policy and practice for Indigenous people with cancer (particularly the relative need for improvement in primary health or acute care services), and have implications for the performance of the acute care system system more generally for Indigenous Australians.Read moreRead less
Role Of The Inositol Polyphosphate 4-phosphatase Type 2 In Human Breast Cancer
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$611,032.00
Summary
Breast cancer is the most invasive cancer in females, affecting 1 in 9 women before the age of 85. Normally cells only divide when they receive a stimulus from a hormone or growth factor. The PI3K pathway responds to these stimuli and has been implicated in cancer when cells divide uncontrollably and invade surrounding tissue. We have identified a potential cancer suppressing gene, 4-ptase-2 that turns off the PI3K growth signals. We aim to characterize the role of 4-ptase-2 in breast cancer.