About the Research

Current Status:

GI CANCER Institute
The first $1m raised has been directed to the GI CANCER Institute to conduct new research into treatments for pancreatic cancer. The research will be conducted by the Australasian Gastro-Intestinal Trials Group (AGITG) and will involve cancer clinicians across Australia and New Zealand.

The phase II trial entitled ‘Biomarker directed treatment of metastatic pancreatic cancer' will involve 80 patients and is expected to be completed in 2014. Having the trial conducted in Australia will potentially bring new treatments to Australian patients three to five years sooner compared to a similar study being conducted overseas.

The primary objective of the trial is to prospectively evaluate a biomarker named "hENT1", as a predictive marker of benefit from gemcitabine treatment in metastatic pancreatic cancer. Secondary objectives include evaluating the efficacy/activity of cancer drugs gemcitabine and Folfox in patients with "hENT1" positive and negative cancer.

Garvan Institute

We have also begun to invest in the Australian Pancreatic Cancer Genome Initiative (APGI) http://www.garvan.org.au/apgi/apgi/overview.html. The funding will be provided to the Garvan Institute, for work to be carried out by Professor Andrew Biankin, co-leader on the APGI.

The APGI is the Australian arm of the International Cancer Genome Consortium (www.icgc.org), a consortium made up of leading scientists in 8 Countries. The aim of the ICGC to catalogue the genetic changes of the 50 most common types of cancer.

Australia is making a substantial contribution to the Consortium by tackling pancreatic cancer.