Medical oncology research department

About the medical oncology research department

The medical oncology research department leads a broad translational cancer research program building from Cabrini being the second largest cancer service in Victoria—and the largest private cancer service in Australia. Our dedicated and experienced team of academic and clinician researchers are invested in translational bench-to-bedside advances in precision medicine.

The research program includes clinical trials assessing the latest advances in therapeutics, the development of preclinical breast and ovarian cancer models to advance biological discovery and identify new therapeutics and targets, cancer exercise laboratory testing to understand the relationship and benefits of exercise in cancer, clinical evaluation of cancer healthcare models, and using health informatics and patient-reported outcome measures to identify ways we can improve the patient experience through better quality of life, less toxicity, and better patient survivorship.

Our program provides significant benefits for patients, including access to treatments not yet in the marketplace, close monitoring and testing, and collection of valuable information that can help others.

Through translational research, we are advancing precision medicine to improve the diagnosis, treatment, management and prevention of cancer.

Team members

Head of department

Oncology clinical trials program

Principal Investigators

Associate Professor Yoland Antill (Breast and Gynaecological Cancers)
Dr Prachi Bhave (Phase 1 Trials)
Dr Libby Blackley (Breast Cancer)
Associate Professor Ben Brady (Melanoma, Lung Cancer)
Associate Professor Kirsten Herbert (Haematological Malignancies)
Associate Professor Melita Kenealy (Haematological Malignancies)
Associate Professor Lara Lipton (Gastrointestinal, Breast and Lung Cancers)
Dr Ben Markman (Lung Cancer and Gastrointestinal Cancers, including Bowel, Oesophagus, Stomach and Pancreas)
Dr Shehara Mendis (Gastrointestinal Cancers, Phase 1 Trials)
Dr Chrissy Muttiah (Breast Cancer)
Associate Professor David Pook (Genitourinary Cancers)
Professor Gary Richardson (Gynaecological, Gastrointestinal, Breast and Lung Cancers)

Associate Investigators

Associate Professor Michael Dickinson
Associate Professor Ian Haines
Dr Despina Handiolias
Dr Henry Januszewicz
Dr Sem Liew
Dr Gaurav Srivastava
Dr Robert Stanley
Dr Mark Voskoboynik
Dr Michelle White
Associate Professor Max Wolf

Clinical Trials Team

Rochelle Woods (Oncology Trials Manager)
Gabriel Qi (Oncology Trials Business Manager)
Jogi Baby (Clinical Trials Nurse)
Dr Demis Balamatsias (Senior Study Coordinator)
Kate Chandler (Study Coordinator)
Dina Cherfi (Senior Study Coordinator)
Betty Dassios (Study Coordinator)
Dulash Fernando (Study Coordinator)
Kate Hurford (Oncology Trials Team Leader)
Simer Khaira (Senior Study Coordinator)
Ella Knox (Study Close Out Coordinator)
Judith Ortega (Pathology Collector)
Koby Scarff (Senior Study Coordinator)
Leyna Tran (Study Coordinator)
Caitlyn Wannenburg (Clinical Trials Administrator)
Shelly Xu (Clinical Trials Nurse)

Translational research program

Health informatics program

Research themes

Translational and precision medicine research program

Lead researchers

Dr Tali Lang
Dr Dilys Leung

Pre-clinical breast cancer research models — Breast organoids and spheroids

Breast cancers are highly heterogeneous and treatment strategies are based on stage of disease, tumour grade, hormone receptor status and performance status of the patient. Despite improvement in therapies, up to 40 per cent of patients have minimal or no response to current treatment regimes.

Precision medicine provides a more personalised approach, with treatment decisions based on tumour features including the subtype, clinical biomarkers and genomic profile. A personalised cancer therapy approach for breast cancers would change and improve the treatment and management of an individual’s disease.

Cabrini—in collaboration with Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute—have developed pre-clinical breast cancer research models known as breast tumour organoids and spheroids, which will allow us to identify changes in the expression of candidate genes known to be implicated in tumour development. Molecular characterisation of breast organoids/spheroids will provide mechanistic insight into biological changes across a range of clinically relevant breast cancer subtypes.

Findings from this research can be translated for use in the clinical setting to guide physicians regarding which patients are more likely to respond to specific treatments, and which treatments have the best chance of a curative outcome, based on molecular profiling of the tumour.

Patient Reported Outcomes (PRO)

Each year there are a significant number of cancer patients treated at Cabrini. Evidenced-based data and treatment guidelines exist to improve the quality and effectiveness of cancer care for patients. Patient-reported outcome (PRO) questionnaires assess topics a patient can self-report about their own health. This includes treatment side-effects (e.g. fatigue, diarrhoea and pain), physical functioning (e.g. difficulty in daily chores, climbing stairs or self-care), and mental health (anxiety, fear, or worry). Electronic PRO (ePRO) systems are used in oncology clinical care setting because of:

their ability to enhance clinical care by flagging important symptoms;
the availability of standardised methods for collecting and measuring evidence-based data in real-time; and
the existence of user-friendly platforms for patient self-reporting like tablet computers or mobile phones.

Currently there is no standardised instrument to measure PRO. Therefore, the development and implementation of an ePRO tool for cancer patients to use as part of standard care at Cabrini would enable systematic monitoring of patient symptoms, function, and needs, to enhance the efficiency and quality of care, as well as patient-clinician communication.

Importantly, findings from PRO research captures provides an understanding of the patient’s perspective throughout each stage of their cancer journey and can enable more personalised treatment and drive improvements in the quality of care provided by cancer services.

Cancer exercise program

Lead researchers

Associate Professor Eva Zopf

Exercise scientits

Nicole Hirshowitz
Benjy Taylor
Mark Trevaskis

It has been estimated that 30–40 percent of all cancers can be prevented by lifestyle and dietary measures alone. Furthermore dietary management, exercise and psychological intervention can reduce the deleterious effects of cancer treatment and improve overall survival results.

In 2021, Cabrini Research established a state-of-the-art exercise laboratory to investigate innovative approaches to improve the health and wellbeing of cancer patients and address current research gaps within the field.

The focus of the new Exercise Lab includes:

Understanding the clinical benefits of exercise across all phases of the cancer continuum from screening and diagnosis to survivorship and end-of-life care
Conducting clinical trials to study the effect of structured and individualised exercise on physical and mental health outcomes before, during and after treatment in a broad range of cancer types
Understanding the potential for exercise to improve cancer treatment tolerability and response as well as recovery upon treatment completion
Exploring the role of exercise in improving survival following a cancer diagnosis
Fostering the delivery of best-practice exercise programming and support as a part of standard cancer care

Health informatics program

Lead researchers

Melissa Vereker
Dr Stefanie Elbracht-Leong
Matthew Horrigan
Sharon Guo
Dr Shehara Mendis

The department has established a number of tumour specific databases to help researchers and doctors to improve the safety and/ or quality of healthcare provided and ultimately patient outcomes and drive clinical and translational research.

Breast Cancer Database
Lung Cancer Database
Gynaecological Oncology Database
Cabrini Upper Gastrointestinal Cancer Registry (CAPSTONE)

Oncology clinical trials program

Antill Y, Kok PS, Robledo K, Yip S, Cummins M, Smith D, Spurdle A, Barnes E, Lee YC, Friedlander M, Baron-Hay S, Shannon C, Coward J, Beale P, Goss G, Meniawy T, Lombard J, Andrews J, Stockler MR, Mileshkin L; Australia New Zealand Gynaecological Oncology Group (ANZGOG). (2021) Clinical activity of durvalumab for patients with advanced mismatch repair-deficient and repair-proficient endometrial cancer. A nonrandomised, phase 2 clinical trial. J Immunother Cancer. 9(6):e002255. doi:10.1136/jitc-2020-002255.
Bennett C, Davis ID, Hamid AA. (2020) Nursing implications of recent changes in management practices for metastatic prostate cancer. Semin Oncol Nurs. 36(4):151047. doi:10.1016/j.soncn.2020.151047.
Body A, Wong R, Shapiro J, Jalali A, McLachlan SA, Ananda S, Lipton L, Cooray P, Gibbs P, Lee B, Lee M. (2020) Use and outcomes of chemotherapy for metastatic pancreatic cancer in Australia. Intern Med J. doi:10.1111/imj.15094.
Choueiri TK, Powles T, Burotto M, Escudier B, Bourlon MT, Zurawski B, Oyervides Juárez VM, Hsieh JJ, Basso U, Shah AY, Suárez C, Hamzaj A, Goh JC, Barrios C, Richardet M, Porta C, Kowalyszyn R, Feregrino JP, Żołnierek J, Pook D, Kessler ER, Tomita Y, Mizuno R, Bedke J, Zhang J, Maurer MA, Simsek B, Ejzykowicz F, Schwab GM, Apolo AB, Motzer RJ; CheckMate 9ER Investigators. (2021) Nivolumab plus cabozantinib versus sunitinib for advanced renal-cell carcinoma. N Engl J Med. 384(9):829-841. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa2026982.
Martinez Chanza N, Bernard B, Barthelemy P, Accarain A, Paesmans M, Desmyter L, T’Kint de Roodenbeke D, Gil T, Sideris S, Roumeguere T, Hamid AA, Sweeney CJ. (2021) Prevalence and clinical impact of tumor BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations in patients presenting with localized or metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer. Prostate Cancer Prostatic Dis. doi:10.1038/s41391-021-00397-2.
Mendis S, Anand S, Karasinska JM, Dasari A, Unger JM, Gothwal A, Ellis LM, Varadhachary G, Kopetz S, Overman MJ, Raghav K, Loree JM.(2021) Sex representation in clinical trials associated with FDA cancer drug approvals differs between solid and hematologic malignancies. Oncologist. 26(2):107-114. doi:10.1002/onco.13534.
Chew NJ, Lim Kam Sian TCC, Nguyen EV, Shin SY, Yang J, Hui MN, Deng N, McLean CA, Welm AL, Lim E, Gregory P, Nottle T, Lang T, Vereker M, Richardson G, Kerr G, Micati D, Jardé T, Abud HE, Lee RS, Swarbrick A, Daly RJ. (2021) Evaluation of FGFR targeting in breast cancer through interrogation of patient-derived models. Breast Cancer Res. 23(1):82. doi: 10.1186/s13058-021-01461-4.
Kim SY, Kissane DW, Richardson G, Senior J, Morgan J, Gregory P, Birks S, Ooi C, Lipton L, Antill Y, Vereker M, Michael N, Bobevski I. (2021) The role of depression and other psychological factors in work ability among breast cancer survivors in Australia. Psychooncology. doi: 10.1002/pon.5802

Collaborations

New discoveries and research focus

Exercise makes an impact in cancer

Exercise can play an incredibly important role in supporting the management of cancer related health outcomes and improving patient wellbeing.

In 2021, Cabrini Research established a state-of-the-art exercise laboratory. We are one of few hospitals in the world with an exercise lab dedicated to cancer patients. Dr Eva Zopf and Kelcey Bland have recently joined our team to lead the oncology exercise program.

Their research will focus on the benefits of exercise across every stage of cancer, its ability to improve treatment tolerability, response and recovery, how it plays a role in the mental and physical health of patients, and whether it can improve survival.

New clinical trial combining immunotherapy with tyrosine kinase inhibition shows astounding results in first line treatment for patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma

Kidney cancer is the seventh most commonly diagnosed cancer in Australia, with renal cell carcinoma (RCC) making up 90 per cent of cases. Advanced or metastatic RCC has an extremely poor prognosis, with patients only having one in ten chance of surviving, and many die in a very short time.

A new worldwide clinical trial, Checkmate 9ER, has shown promise of changing those outcomes. Led by Associate Professor David Pook at Cabrini, the combined treatment with nivolumab and carbozantinib as a first line treatment was shown to be far superior than current standard of care, reducing the risk of death or disease progression by almost 50 per cent, and accompanied by improvements in all measures of patient reported quality of life.

Read about the research

Preclinical breast cancer models – the future of precision medicine and drug discovery

The department is partnering with the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute to develop powerful preclinical breast cancer organoid and spheroid research models replicating the features of the patient’s own tissue. The models will allow novel exploration of cancer biology, understand how every patient uniquely responds to different drugs, identify biomarkers, and drive novel drug discoveries with the ultimate aim of translating laboratory discoveries into improved outcomes for breast cancer patients.

Cabrini Breast Cancer Database – improving safety and quality of cancer treatment and outcomes for patients diagnosed with early and locally advanced breast cancer

The department established the breast cancer database in 2016 and has since collected data on more than 2000 breast cancer patients attending Cabrini.

The data will improve the management, treatment and outcomes of future breast cancer patients, identify patients who may benefit from new treatments or clinical trials, evaluate long-term effects and outcomes for treatment provided many years ago, and drive clinical and translational research.

Patient Reported Outcomes Measures (PROMs)

Healthcare can be improved when patients share what is important to them, and any issues that may impact on their care and treatment. PROMs measure health outcomes from a patient’s perspective, including quality of life, daily functioning, symptoms, mental health wellbeing and other health aspects. Research being driven in the department is developing and implementing an electronic PRO system to use in the oncology setting.

PHAEDRA clinical trial is one of the first studies to demonstrate the promising efficacy of immunotherapy to treat endometrial cancer

More than 600 women die from endometrial cancer in Australia every year. Associate Professor Yoland Antill from Cabrini together with a team of investigators from Australia developed and designed the PHAEDRA trial, one of the very first studies to look at using immunotherapy to treat endometrial cancer. Testing the activity of the immunotherapeutic drug durvalumab in women with advanced endometrial cancer, PHAEDRA showed mismatch repair deficiency status markedly determines the chances of responding well to durvalumab. Those patients deficient in mismatch repair showed a promising efficacy with tumour shrinkage evident in 47 per cent of patients. A stark contrast to only three percent of patients with proficient mismatch repair (pMMR).

Read about the research

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Medical oncology research department

About the medical oncology research department

Team members

Principal Investigators

Associate Investigators

Clinical Trials Team

Senior Research Fellow

Research Fellow

Breast Cancer Database

Lung Cancer Database

Gynaecological Oncology Database

Cabrini Upper Gastrointestinal Cancer Registry (CAPSTONE)

Research themes

Lead researchers

Pre-clinical breast cancer research models — Breast organoids and spheroids

Patient Reported Outcomes (PRO)

Lead researchers

Exercise scientits

Lead researchers

Collaborations

New discoveries and research focus

Exercise makes an impact in cancer

New clinical trial combining immunotherapy with tyrosine kinase inhibition shows astounding results in first line treatment for patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma

Preclinical breast cancer models – the future of precision medicine and drug discovery

Cabrini Breast Cancer Database – improving safety and quality of cancer treatment and outcomes for patients diagnosed with early and locally advanced breast cancer

Patient Reported Outcomes Measures (PROMs)

PHAEDRA clinical trial is one of the first studies to demonstrate the promising efficacy of immunotherapy to treat endometrial cancer

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