Cancer prevention in the spotlight
18 December 2024
Peter Mac has received four Tour de Cure grants including funding towards a collaborative network designed to improve prevention and detection of cancer.
The PRevention and Early DetectIon of Cancer neTwork (PREDICT) was founded by Associate Professor Kara Britt to foster collaboration, scholarly discussions and develop effective approaches to cancer prevention and detection studies.
Associate Professor Britt explained the grant will allow the group to develop a website to disseminate new information on the latest developments in prevention, screening and early detection as well as find experts for collaborative projects.
“We will also hold an annual symposium and quarterly meetings to discuss research and enable our researchers to strengthen existing collaborations and initiate new ones,” she said.
“The PREDICT network brings together departments within Peter Mac, University of Melbourne, WEHI, Royal Women's Hospital and St Vincent's Hospital.
“Our focus is across a range of cancers and brings together a broad range of health professionals including epidemiologists, cancer screening and public health experts, oncology clinicians, implementation scientists, lab researchers and consumers at increased risk of cancer or with lived experience of cancer.”
Supported by the VCCC Alliance, the PREDICT network was founded in 2023 to address the lack of a unified program where like-minded researchers can come together to share their work and foster faster progress in approaches to cancer prevention and detection.
Other Peter Mac projects to receive funding from Tour de Cure include:
- Professor Sherene Loi and Associate Professor Heather Thorne’s Pioneering Research Grant into revealing the remaining genetic cause of breast and ovarian cancer in multi-case cancer families
- Associate Professor Laura Forrest’s PERSONA (Precision prEvention of bReaSt and OvariaN cAncer) pre-implementation study to deliver a personalised breast and ovarian cancer risk assessment for an Australian cancer precision prevention program
- Dr Aaron Wong’s Matching Grant for a trial optimising opioid use for cancer pain using precision medicine.