Bowel Cancer Australia recently announced a team led by Professor Michael Samuel as the successful applicant for a three-year $600k early-onset bowel cancer research project through the 2023 round of Cancer Australia’s Priority-driven Collaborative Cancer Research Scheme (PdCCRS).
According to Bowel Cancer Australia, bowel cancer in the under fifties is trending upward, with 1-in-9 new bowel cancer cases now occurring in people under age 50, and presentation with metastatic disease more frequent in this demographic. Rates in the over fifties have stabilised or are declining.
Rho-associated kinase or ROCK, is an enzyme (protein) found in everyone, and it controls the shape and movement of cells within the body.
The way in which cancer cells communicate with normal cells in their environment via ROCK has been discovered to drive disease progression (invasion, metastasis, and recurrence). This understanding has revealed that blocking cancers from hijacking normal cells in this way could be a new way to target the disease.
Professor Samuel of the Centre for Cancer Biology (an alliance between the University of South Australia and SA Pathology) and the Basil Hetzel Institute for Translational Health Research will investigate ROCK-induced early-onset bowel cancer progression.
“People diagnosed with early-onset bowel cancer have a 50% chance that their cancer will recur or spread to other organs following initial intervention (e.g. surgery to remove the primary cancer), compared to around 30% in people diagnosed with late-onset bowel cancer,” says Professor Samuel.
“We have evidence that ROCK activity in bowel cancers drives this process by influencing how cancers communicate with their environment. Our project will investigate how this happens. We will also study whether certain effects of ROCK activation in early-onset bowel cancers can help us predict whose cancers will recur and whose will not,” he continues.
“In a practical sense, this could help us use targeted therapies that block cancer cells from communicating with their environment, in people who are most likely to experience recurrence of their cancer. It could also help us minimise the use of debilitating chemotherapies,” he adds.
The research team, which includes clinicians from the Central Adelaide Local Health Network, will also be examining whether proteins that interact with ROCK cause early-onset bowel cancer progression, and if they do, targeting these proteins would be a way of stopping ROCK from accelerating tumour growth.
Source: Bowel Cancer Australia
-
Interview with Kylie Ward, CEO Australian College of Nursing
Kylie Ward, CEO Australian College of Nursing spoke with Anne Dao from Australian Health Journal, at last week’s Australian Healthcare Week Expo on the vital role of the nursing professional.
Australian College of Nursing oversees 390,000 nurses in Australia and is the national leader in the nursing profession.
Changes in nursing policy are needed in areas of aged care, chronic disease and workforce sustainability. There are forecasts of shortages in nursing by the year 2025 of 80,000 and by 2030 the number growing by 125,000.
Kylie also mentioned the new Nursing Trailbrazers Award that has been recognised by Federal Health Minister, Greg Hunt. The 4 finalists have been recognised for influencing models of care, and implementing game changing initiatives across the country. They will be presented at the Nursing Now Australia event held by the ACN on 9th April.
-
Dr Anjali Jaiprakash, Robobiologist from Queensland University of Technology
Dr Anjali Jaiprakash is a robobiologist working at the intersection of medicine, engineering and design, with a transdisciplinary approach to develop medical devices that translate robotic vision into affordable systems that can be used to improve healthcare outcomes. Anjali has experience in the fields of medical robotics, medical device, orthopaedics, trauma, bone and cartilage biology. She spoke with Anne Dao following her talk “The Robot Doctor Will See you Now” at Australian Healthcare Week 2019.
-
Tasmanian researchers and clinicians working together
Tasmanian medical research charity funds projects that have a global impact and improve community health and well-being.
Australian Health Journal spoke to Stephanie Furler the Chief Executive Officer of The Royal Hobart Hospital Research Foundation about the impact of this research locally and in global health.
