| Project title | Brain Cancer Translational Research Officer |
|---|---|
Grant Amount | $291,000 |
Institution | UNSW |
Investigator Team | Principal investigators A/Prof. Kerrie McDonald with associate investigators |
Grant Type | Infrastructure |
Years | 2011 – 2015 |
This research project will fund the work of a translational research officer in the Cure Brain Cancer Neuro-Oncology Lab at the Lowy Cancer Research Centre, led by A/Prof. Kerrie McDonald.
A Brain Cancer Translational Research Officer will maintain accurate records of brain cancer diagnosis and treatment for patients who have consented to the collection of this data for the purposes of ethics approved research.
Scientific breakthroughs are not only dependent on good tissue samples, but upon accurate clinical data -this is ‘treasure’ to a scientist. In order to achieve scientific breakthroughs, there is a need to collect and maintain clinical data to be stored in a Biobank. This requires logging an accurate record of the brain cancer journey for every single specimen: date of diagnosis, treatment schedule, response, adverse events and importantly survival times.
“The one treatment fits all approach has not worked and a better understanding of the patient’s biology and a holistic understanding of druggable targets and druggable pathways will lead to improved survival times.”
A/Prof. Kerrie McDonald
Progress: Final report
This grant supported the work of Dr. Pukar Thapa.
Dr. Pukar Thapa has made an enormous impact on bridging the gap between the clinic and the laboratory. Biobanking of tumour tissue in excess after surgery (only conducted after obtaining patient consent) is a critical step towards understanding the biology of brain tumours. By having thorough clinical data we can look at important changes in how patients respond to treatment, the impact of surgery, time periods between discharge from surgery and next treatment, and also the correlations between tumour behavior and pathology.
Dr. Thapa is also integral to our new dynamic biobanking models. This involves growing the patient’s tumour in culture and in mice, to facilitate the testing of new treatments for the patients, based on the molecular features of the tumour. The link between the clinic and the laboratory is essential for our individualised treatment model.
Dr. Thapa has set up new and innovative databases to house the important clinical information with state-of-the-art security to protect patient privacy. Researchers using the tissue only know the patient by a coded number. Dr. Thapa is also involved in the clinical follow-up of patients at the Prince of Wales Public and Private Hospitals.
Critically, since Dr. Thapa’s appointment, the time taken for researchers to obtain quality tissue and complete clinical information has been reduced from 7 months to now just one week. This is a huge change in our practice and will be evidenced by faster times to research breakthroughs.