Dr Abby Douglas has been awarded the 2022 Peter MacCallum Postgraduate Research Medal for her clinical practice changing research.

Dr Douglas has been awarded the prestigious award which aims to promote excellence in cancer research by a PhD and Medical Doctor or Doctor of Medical Science student at Peter Mac.

Dr Douglas uncovered that you could reduce length of hospital stay and antimicrobial use by using PET scans instead of CT scans in the management of ongoing neutropenic fever in bone marrow transplant patients or those with acute leukaemia. 

Neutropenia is a condition where a patient has a very low white blood cell count, making the person more susceptible to infection. Unfortunately, neutropenic patients who have ongoing fever often have very few focal symptoms which makes it challenging for the doctor to uncover where or what is causing the infection. Importantly, these patients are vulnerable to serious infections and consequences of untreated infection such as intensive care admission and mortality, hence accurately detecting the cause of fever is vitally important and challenging up until now.  

A CT scan is the standard of care to help the doctor uncover the cause of infection, but this technique is not always accurate, and Dr Douglas wanted to find a better diagnostic test. She developed and conducted a randomised controlled trial with her PhD supervisors Professors Monica Slavin and Karin Thursky to answer this question.

 “The trial compared the use of CT scan to FDG-PET-CT scan to learn what impact the information obtained from the scan was having on antimicrobial use. She looked at whether it resulted in the use of more narrow spectrum treatments and if it resulted in stopping therapy when it was not needed, said Professor Karin Thursky, Associate Director, Health Services Research and Implementation Science.

“The results clearly showed that FDG-PET-CT scan was a better diagnostic tool as it helped to rationalise the use of antimicrobials as well as reduce hospital stay. Her findings will result in improved patient outcomes, reduced costs, improved antimicrobial stewardship and are currently being translated into clinical guidelines.”

The study was published in The Lancet Haematology this year. 

Congratulations Dr Douglas on your remarkable work and your well-deserved Peter Mac Medal.