Health equity in cancer care is a significant part of our work at the VCCC Alliance. It was great to see this recognised in the recent Victorian government budget with funding secured for programs aiming to reduce gaps in outcomes for people affected by cancer based on situation, background or location.
We’re looking forward to our work contributing strongly to the strategic objectives of the Victorian Cancer Plan 2024 – 2028 - due to be tabled in parliament on 1 October - towards better outcomes for all Victorians affected by cancer, as well as playing a role in the Australian Cancer Plan to achieve greater equity and improved cancer care across the nation.
We are grateful for the continued support from our members, collaborators and the wider community, particularly after the May budget news. The burden of cancer on our society is only increasing, and there’s so much more to do. The sector has certainly presented a united front at this time, which I am thankful for. While we’re continuing to explore further funding opportunities, the VCCC Alliance is as always firmly focused on moving forward.
In our Strategic Program Plan 2020 – 2024 we set ourselves a mission to harness the capabilities of our partners to position Victoria as a trailblazer in research-led, consumer-engaged, cancer education, prevention, detection, treatment and care. We’re incredibly proud of what’s been achieved already and will be celebrating more successes from these programs over the coming months.
We’re starting in this edition by looking at the success of a Data Connect research project that's providing evidence to guide new ways to reduce diagnosis and treatment times for colorectal cancer patients, and evaluation of the recent Regional Cancer Partnership Forums run in collaboration with our statewide regional cancer network.
It was fantastic to attend the launch of the Australian Comprehensive Cancer Network (ACCN) recently, and enjoy presentations and conversations around uniting our efforts across Australia. The topics I personally spoke on – information exchange, leadership, self-evaluation and continuous improvement – are all critical to the ACCN’s purpose and core to the charge of the VCCC Alliance. I would strongly encourage you to consider becoming part of this initiative. Registration is now open for a range of services, including all cancer care centres and units, clinical networks, primary health networks, hospitals, allied health, academic and research institutions, and more. Learn more about the ACCN and who can join.
I was fortunate to attend this year’s ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago, USA, where discussions centred around the timely theme of The Art and Science of Cancer Care: From Comfort to Cure.
Among the many world-class presentations and workshops, it was great to see the exciting Australian co-led NADINA study of immunotherapy feature in a plenary session presented by Christian Blank from the Netherlands Cancer Institute who was co-principal investigator with Australian of the Year Georgina Long, discussing the treatment’s use with stage III melanoma. This study around pre-surgery – or neoadjuvant – treatment is very promising. There were major contributions from Victoria led by Shahneen Sandhu at Peter Mac and Miles Andrews at The Alfred. Recently, the VCCC Alliance hosted a popular workshop on pre-surgery treatment for lung cancer, showing the potential for similar approaches becoming standard of care for treating other cancers. There’s been plenty of media coverage on NADINA and we’re watching with interest to see this progress.
I was also captivated by Joseph Greer, of Harvard Medical School, who shared findings on the effectiveness of telehealth for early palliative care in patients with advanced lung cancer. One of our new programs of work funded by the Victorian Government will focus on enhancing palliative care in regional Victoria. There is much potential in the use of remote technology for better patient experiences, and we’re ensuring we support further steps to realising this potential.
Speaking at ASCO for any researcher is a significant milestone because of the incredibly high standard this conference sets. For that reason it was a proud moment to see Julia Lai-Kwon, a PhD student at the University of Melbourne and Peter Mac and a member of our VCCC Alliance Education team, have the opportunity to present an education session on patient-reported outcomes in primary palliative care. Well done, Julia.
Congratulations to everyone from our members who contributed at the conference, including Prof Sherene Loi (Peter Mac, the University of Melbourne), Prof Ben Solomon (Peter Mac, the University of Melbourne), Dr Belinda Lee (WEHI), Prof Shankar Siva (Peter Mac), Prof Linda Mileshkin (Peter Mac, the University of Melbourne), Prof Jayesh Desai (Peter Mac), Prof Shahneen Sandhu (Peter Mac), Dr George Au-Yeung (Peter Mac, the University of Melbourne), Prof Danny Rischin (Peter Mac, the University of Melbourne), and more.
Prof Grant McArthur AO
Chief Executive Officer
