Translating research discoveries into clinical practice
Professor Philip Hogg, Director of the UNSW Cancer Research Centre, has received many accolades in his distinguished research career – now including the 2009 Premier's Award for Outstanding Cancer Researcher – but the achievement he is most proud of is the clinical development of his anti-cancer compounds.
"Taking the drugs from the bench to testing in cancer patients
is a very difficult process and I am thrilled we have achieved
this," he says.
Professor Hogg's team has described a novel way in which protein
action is controlled. Application of this basic research has now
led to the development of new anti-cancer drugs and a new cancer
diagnostic.
"My team has developed a novel class of anti-mitochondrial
cancer drugs and a tumour cell death imaging agent," explains
Professor Hogg. "The lead cancer drug is currently being trialled
in cancer patients in the UK. Fourteen patients have been treated
so far and the initial results are promising. The imaging agent
non-invasively detects dying and dead tumour cells. The agent could
be used, for instance, to assess the efficacy of cancer
therapy."
Bringing this research back to NSW is very important to
Professor Hogg, something he wouldn't have been able to do without
local support. "The Cancer Institute NSW has enabled us to test our
second generation anti-cancer drug in clinical trials in NSW. Up
until now we have had to go overseas (UK and USA) to trial our
drugs. We have high hopes for this new compound - it is much more
effective than the first compound and is better tolerated."
Ongoing commitment to cancer research is needed to continue to
reduce cancer death rates over the next 20 years. Some of this
investment will provide immediate discoveries, like Professor
Hogg's, that benefit patients this year or the next. However, some
of the investment will support research with longer term returns
that improve cancer results.
The outcomes from the investment in cancer research are becoming
increasingly obvious. NSW has documented more leverage of cancer
research contributions from other funders than other medical
research disciplines in NSW. Cancer publications generated from NSW
are greater than other states; NSW clinical trails participation
has increased to nearly six per cent of incident cancer cases; and
the number of talented researchers in cancer, in NSW, has increased
by more than 50 per cent since 2004.
I want to see new treatments for cancer being discovered and
developed in NSW that will benefit all cancer sufferers.
This impact provides a base for the Cancer Institute NSW vision
to better control and cure cancer. It offers the best hope to allow
those of us facing cancer now and in the future to be optimistic
about our chances of surviving cancer.
Like most people in the field, contributing to breakthrough
developments in cancer research also has personal meaning for
Professor Hogg.
"Some of my close relatives have died from cancer. My job gives
me the opportunity to do something significant in the fight against
this disease."
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