Cancer
 Dr Devinder Gill
Cancer Collaborative Group
The PA Foundation has committed to invest $500,000 over 5 years to the Cancer Collaborative Group to ensure better care for people with cancer.
Managing 10,000 people with cancer every year, the Princess Alexandra Hospital is one of the two largest adult cancer centres in Australia.
The Cancer Collaborative Group is a network of clinicians, researchers and health professionals, from all disciplines that influence cancer management, treatment and patient care. It encompasses multidisciplinary teams and clinics, cancer research activities and facilitates both internal collaboration as well as communication of research findings to the wider community.
These various components work together to deliver excellence in treatment and research to enhance the quality of care provided to people with cancer.
An important feature of cancer care at the hospital is the existence of combined clinics involving nurses, allied health professionals, medical oncologists, radiation oncologists and surgeons. Rather than work in isolation, these multidisciplinary teams work together to optimize patient care.
The Princess Alexandra Hospital (PAH) plays a lead role in medical research, undertaking research programs with affiliated universities including the University of Queensland, Griffith University and the Queensland University of Technology.
With the Queensland Clinical Trial Centre located on campus, the PAH has one of the most active cancer clinical trials programs in Queensland. Clinical trials provide access to innovative treatments and therapies leading to better outcomes for cancer patients.
The Cancer Collaborative Group also facilitates the collection of important research resources. For instance, the largest and best-documented solid tumour tissue bank in Australia is situated on campus along with an extensive database of clinical data and an established micro-array facility. The micro-array facility allows thousands of genes in cancer cells to be analysed in a single test tube. This provides unique information which leads to specific therapy for each individual.
Central to research activity undertaken on campus is the capability to take research findings and turn them into practice. Research results guide how we look after our patients.
For instance, researchers on campus are about to conduct a trial using the latest imaging technology that will enable more individualised cancer treatments. Although effective, cancer treatments can have many toxic side effects. The ability to tailor treatments to individual patients will often result in a reduction of the length of treatment, as well as lessening the potential for later long term side effects. The outcome will ultimately mean a better quality of life for patients battling cancer.
This is just one example of the many research projects the Cancer Collaborative Group is coordinating. The collaboration has resulted in substantial progress achieved by a dedicated, dynamic group of clinicians and researchers.
The focus of the Cancer Collaborative Group centres on:
- Translating scientific discoveries from the laboratory to cancer care
- Training early career cancer researchers
- Communicating research findings to the wider community
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