The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research

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New funding benefits research in blood cancers and rare cancers

 

The development at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of a new class of anti-cancer drugs called BH3 mimetics and a project that collects information on rare cancers have received funding in this year’s round of Victorian Cancer Agency (VCA) grants.

Dr Kylie Mason, a senior postdoctoral fellow in the institute’s Cancer and Haematology division has received a $400,000 VCA Clinical Research Fellowship to maximise the potential of BH3 mimetic drugs, which act by directly killing cancer cells.

“Cancers of the blood such as leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma are the third most common cause of cancer death in Victoria,” Dr Mason said. “Current therapies are inadequate so new treatment approaches are needed.

“BH3 mimetic drugs directly promote the suicide of cancer cells and hold great promise for the treatment of patients suffering from cancer, particularly cancers of the blood. With a combination of integrated clinical trials and laboratory studies I aim to optimise the potential of these exciting agents for cancer treatment.”

Dr Clare Scott, a laboratory head in the institute’s Molecular Genetics of Cancer division and a medical oncologist at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, has received a $50,000 VCA Consumer Research Grant to further develop CART-WHEEL.org.

CART-WHEEL.org, the Centre of Analysis of Rare Tumors, is the first international, ethically-approved web portal coordinating patient information, research studies and clinical trials for rare cancers.

“Rare cancers account for up to 20 percent of cancers diagnosed each year and 31 percent of cancer-related deaths,” Dr Scott said. “There are more than 500 types of rare tumour so a significant group of any one tumour type will not exist at any single medical institution. This means there are limited opportunities for basic research and, because of the limited number of patients, clinical trials are infrequent and often uninformative.

“Many patients with rare tumours have few treatment choices,” Dr Scott said. “This website provides a new way of linking patients into the system of research and clinical trials, increasing the number of patients available for specialised research.

“The ultimate goal for CART-WHEEL is to gather enough entries over time to make clinical trials for different types of rare tumours a possibility.”

The director of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, Professor Doug Hilton, said the research being pursued by Drs Mason and Scott had immense potential to improve the lives of people with cancer and reflected the priorities of the Victorian Government’s Cancer Action Plan.

“As the proportion of older people increases in the Australian population, cancer incidence is also going to increase,” he said. “The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute has a long history of making discoveries that improve the lives of people with cancer, starting with Don Metcalf’s discovery of the colony stimulating factors which has now helped more than 10 million cancer patients in their recovery from chemotherapy. Our scientists are continuing to make important discoveries and the work of Kylie and Clare is an important part of our ongoing cancer research program.”

For further information

Penny Fannin
Strategic Communications Manager
Ph: +61 3 9345 2345
Mob: 0417 125 700
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