Two-year-old Luna’s family is fundraising for treatments only available overseas for her rare childhood cancer, neuroblastoma. They sat down with Gary Hardgrave on the 4BC Radio Drive program to share their experiences.

People living with cancer urgently need action on expanded access to precision therapies

Over the past two decades, our ability to rapidly obtain genomic information on an individual and their cancer has led to a dramatic shift in how we can diagnose, treat, monitor and prevent cancer, leading to an era of precision oncology.

With this expanded knowledge of cancer there are several promising treatments that can specifically target the drivers of an individual’s cancer, that are already under review through Australia’s health technology assessment process. Too many people living with cancer in Australia still don’t have access; and they can’t afford to wait.

In this edition of The Conversation Hour, hosted by ABC Radio Melbourne, we hear the experiences of callers who have been diagnosed with a rare cancer and their families. We also learn about the latest developments in treatment and support with guests Professor Clare Scott who is a clinician scientist, leading the ovarian and rare cancer laboratory at WEHI and Danielle Spence from the Cancer Council Victoria.

Credits

Richelle Hunt, Presenter

All rights belong to ABC Radio Melbourne.

Noel Carmona, living with thymic carcinoma, and Rare Cancers Australia CEO Christine Cockburn, sat down with ABC Radio in the Upper Hunter to talk about the cost of treatment for people diagnosed with a rare cancer, and what needs to change to make things fair for rare.

Professor Grant McArthur
Executive Director, VCCC Alliance
Head of the Molecular Oncology Lab, Peter Mac

Thinking big: how we can make a difference for patients

In this episode, RCA Chief Executive Richard Vines speaks to Professor Grant McArthur about:

· The challenges of personalising cancer treatment

· How the moon landing sparked a career in medicine

· Why he chose to specialise in cancer, and melanoma

· What gets him out of bed in the morning, and what drives him

· The vision of the VCCC, and how it came about

· Why he moved from a full-time research and clinical role to a leadership position

· The sensitivities around prescribing medications that are not PBS funded

· The gaps between published evidence, TGA approval and PBS listing

· Ideas on how to speed up patient access to life-extending and life-saving treatment

· The challenges and opportunities of developing combination treatments

· How we can continue to improve cancer outcomes in the next 10 years

More about Professor Grant McArthur
Grant is the Executive Director of the VCCC Alliance, a powerful partnership of 10 leading research, academic and clinical institutions, working together to fundamentally reshape the way we tackle cancer. Grant is also Head of the Molecular Oncology Lab at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, and a highly cited melanoma researcher.

Emeritus Professor Ian Frazer
University of Queensland

The future of cancer and medical research

In this episode, RCA Chief Executive Richard Vines speaks to Professor Ian Frazer about:

• Inventing the technology behind the world’s first cancer vaccine
• Vaccine hesitancy, and the potential of other vaccines for cancer
• What makes the Translational Research Institute so special
• The interface between clinicians, scientists and patients in medical research
• Our expanding understanding of cancer and targeted treatment
• The experience of being Australian of The Year, and what he’s working on now
• How the Medical Research Future Fund works
• The alleged brain drain of medical researchers from Australia
• The need to better embed medical research into the health system
• How he sees medical research benefiting patients in 10 years’ time

More about Emeritus Professor Ian Frazer

Ian and his colleague co-invented the technology behind the world’s first cervical cancer vaccine.

He is the founding CEO of the Translational Research Institute in Brisbane, heads a biotechnology company working on new vaccine technologies, and chairs the advisory board of the Medical Research Future Fund.

Ann Single
Patient Voice Initiative

Improving the patient voice in the Australian health system

In this episode, RCA Chief Executive Richard Vines speaks to Ann Single about:

- The limitations of Australia’s Health Technology Assessment (HTA) process
- How and why the HTA process needs to be framed from a patient perspective
- Australia’s perception of ‘value’ as it applies to health versus other areas like defense
- The need to embrace uncertainty and speed up patient access to cancer treatments
- Why she finds HTA fascinating and why she’s optimistic about the HTA Review
- What she’s learned from 20 years of working with patients
- Improving the patient voice in the Australian health system
- Why she moved from journalism to science communication

More about Ann Single
Ann is Coordinator of the Patient Voice Initiative, an association that works towards improving the patient voice in the Australian health system. She has more than 20 years of experience in developing policy and practice in patient involvement in health technology assessment, or HTA. Ann is Chair of the HTAi Interest Group for Patient and Citizen Involvement in HTA and has been selected as a consumer representative on the Australian Government’s HTA review.

Professor John Zalcberg
Head, Cancer Research Program, School of Public Health, Monash University
 
Our responsibility to patients who can’t afford to wait

In this episode, RCA Chief Executive Richard Vines speaks to Professor John Zalcberg about:
- How he was destinated to be in medicine since childhood
- Why he chose to specialise in cancer care
- The challenges around making clinical trials more ‘ambitious’
- How wealth impacts your access to cancer drugs in Australia
- How the cost of drugs to the community trumps urgent provision to patients
- The challenges of working within the current health system
- Ideas to help speed up critical access to treatment
- The untapped potential of patient data

More about Professor John Zalcberg
John was Director of Cancer Medicine at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre for 17 years, as well as their Chief Medical Officer for six. He is highly regarded both nationally and internationally as a leader in his field, is a mentor to some of the most accomplished clinicians in Australia, and is a well-known advocate for patient access to new cancer drugs.  

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