Research Areas

The EXPERT Phase III Trial (breast cancer)

Phase III studies are done to study the efficacy (that is, whether it works as intended) of a promising intervention in very large groups of trial participants by comparing the intervention to other standard or experimental care methods, and to collect information that will allow the intervention to be used safely.

Together with Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, St Vincent’s Hospital, Western Health, Box Hill Hospital, Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness & Research Centre, we are recruiting people to participate in the EXPERT Trial, a phase III trial that is examining personalised radiation therapy for low-risk early breast cancer.

Radiation therapy (RT) after breast-conserving surgery is the current standard of care for patients with early breast cancer. However, breast cancer is a variable disease, which means the benefit of RT in preventing the cancer from returning to the area also varies between individual patients.

A priority in breast cancer management is to identify patients who are unlikely to benefit from RT, to avoid the associated side effects and over-treatment costs. A recent analysis of tumour specimens from over 1000 patients with early breast cancer has shown a link between the genes expressed in the tumours and the risk of the cancer returning to the area. This trial presents a unique opportunity to use gene expression to identify low-risk patients for whom RT after breast-conserving surgery can be safely omitted.

For more information visit the Barwon Health Clinical Trials site

Use of a Novel Metallic Nanoparticle¹ as a Radiation Dose Enhancer

A novel nanoparticle agent showing promising enhanced tumour cell kill properties is being investigated in the laboratory. Dose enhancement is achieved by the generation of more oxygen in the vicinity of the tumour which assists in cell kill. The generation of this oxygen is achieved through interactions of the fluorescent photons (produced by irradiating the nanoparticles with photon radiation) and an agent such as photophrin. If proven to be viable, this nanoparticle agent can be introduced to the tumour prior to radiotherapy to increase the dose to these cells and so increase the efficacy of treatments.

This project is a collaboration between the University of South Australia, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, and Barwon Health (Radiation Oncology). Seed funding has been sourced for three years to demonstrate proof of concept.

¹Details of the nanoparticle have been omitted to preserve intellectual property.

Use of Data Mining and Machine Learning to Assist in Radiotherapy Clinical Decision Making

Radiotherapy is an established treatment technique with guidelines based on historical clinical evidence. Globally, there is a vast amount of data available which can be computed and processed by data mining and machine learning to assist the clinicians in their decision-making.

Radiation Oncology has ethics approval to be involved with OzCat (The Australian Computer Assisted Theragnostics network) and the global consortium to mine clinical data to produce treatment information, such as the probability of toxicity and outcome based on a patient’s clinical profile, to assist in clinical decision making.