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Leading Royal North Shore Hospital clinician researcher Professor Nick Pavlakis and Professor Ben Solomon have secured a $14.7 million MRFF grant for a clinical trial which will explore the use of a liquid biopsy to inform treatment for lung cancer.

The condition is the leading cause of cancer death in Australia and worldwide, claiming an estimated 9,000 lives in Australia each year.

The pioneering study will place Australia at the forefront of global precision medicine by using liquid biopsies to revolutionise personalised lung cancer treatment.

It will involve some of the country’s most respected lung cancer clinicians and researchers and will be available to patients across Australia.

Professor Pavlakis said the large-scale clinical trial will involve more than 500 people with advanced non-small cell lung cancer, offering them access to the exciting new treatment.

“Over the last decade, treatment for non-small cell lung cancer has been transformed by the discovery of several genomic mutations that drive tumour growth,” he said.

“This has led to effective new therapies which specifically target the mutation, moving away from general chemotherapy to daily tablets at home with tolerable side effects.

“Many patients have survived up to 10 years living with their lung cancer, but in most cases, the cancer inevitably develops resistance to the targeted therapies.”

To date, clinicians have relied on invasive tissue biopsies to inform treatment options, but this new clinical trial will investigate the use of a liquid biopsy (circulating tumour DNA) to guide a personalised approach throughout a patient’s journey.

It could change the way lung cancer is treated and provide a model for other cancers as well.

“A simple blood test will be less invasive, provide quicker results and will enable more frequent feedback on what genomic changes have occurred in response to treatment,” said Professor Pavlakis.

“This will inform what treatments will be the best for a given patient.

“The approach represents a unique opportunity to refine personalised medicine for lung cancer, not just at the time of diagnosis, but throughout treatment.

“It is a major step forward and a testament to the many people involved in progressing our work to this point.

“We anticipate it will lead to improved survival and quality of life, and may provide supporting evidence for broader liquid biopsy application to transform the treatment for other cancers as well.”

The trial, named Aspiration 2L, will be led by the Thoracic Oncology Group of Australasia.

NORTH STAR VNP will be participating in the transformative study, utilising the telehealth platform to provide access to patients across its network.

A two-decade long commitment to reducing blood cancers has delivered coveted national funding to Associate Professor Jenny Wang to progress her vital cancer research.

As the head of the Kolling Institute’s Cancer and Stem Cell Laboratory, Associate Professor Wang has secured a $2.95 million investigator grant from the National Health and Medical Research Council to advance her pioneering research into acute myeloid leukaemia.

Jenny said she was overwhelmed by the grant success.

“It was thrilled to hear the news,” she said.

“To secure a large National Health and Medical Research Council grant is challenging, so I’m really pleased to be able to accelerate our research with this significant funding boost.”

Acute myeloid leukaemia is the deadliest form of blood cancer, with only 27 per cent of patients surviving more than five years after treatment.

“Our research aims to revolutionize treatment by targeting leukaemia stem cells,” she said.

“These cells are resistant to conventional chemotherapy, and are believed to be the primary cause of treatment failure and relapse.

“Currently, more than 80 per cent of people with this type of blood cancer will experience a relapse, and the majority will have a poor outcome.

“Our research is working to develop stem cell-targeted therapies where we eliminate the leukaemia stem cells altogether.

“Encouragingly, this would potentially replace intensive chemotherapy with more targeted treatments.

“This wonderful funding boost will enable my team and I to progress these promising new therapies and offer hope to people with this aggressive cancer.

“We expect this funding will lead to renewed optimism for improved outcomes in the fight against acute myeloid leukaemia and other deadly blood cancers.”