$3 million to fight rare cancers

The Stafford Fox Medical Research Foundation will support the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI) in its development of new strategies for diagnosing and treating patients with rare cancers.

Over 42,000 Australians are diagnosed with a rare cancer each year, yet according to Stafford Fox Medical Research Foundation trustee Ken Wallace, few rare cancers have been well researched. “As a result, treatments for many rare cancers have not advanced at the same pace as treatments for common cancers,” he said.

With this in mind, the foundation has supplied a $3 million gift to establish the Stafford Fox Rare Cancer Research Program, as well as the appointment of two centenary fellows: the Stafford Fox Centenary Fellow in rare cancer research, awarded to Associate Professor Clare Scott; and the Stafford Fox Centenary Fellow in bioinformatics, awarded to Associate Professor Tony Papenfuss.

The research program will ensure that Australian cancer patients benefit from the latest technologies and research in the hopes of improving their options. According to Wallace, the WEHI team will “use state-of-the-art molecular and genomic technologies to study critical genes that drive rare cancers”.

The program will be led by Associate Professor Scott, who is also an oncologist at The Royal Melbourne Hospital. She explained, “A major objective of this research is to recommend effective treatments for rare cancer patients by genetically matching their cancers to existing anticancer medications that are used for more common cancer types.

“Once a treatment for a rare cancer patient is devised, our researchers will monitor the success of the therapy and use this information to guide future treatment recommendations for other patients. It represents a huge step forward in what we could offer patients with rare cancers.”