Download About cancer research at the University of Wollongong through the

About cancer research at the University of Wollongong through the
Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute
Academic lead: Associate Professor Marie Ranson, UOW
Clinical lead: Professor Philip Clingan, Director, Medical Oncology, Wollongong Hospital
Cancer Care Centre
Why is cancer so difficult to cure? The answer is complex.
While we understand the basic hallmarks of cancer, we also know that there are more than
100 different types of cancer and numerous permutations within each of those types.
There are also differences in the same cancer type between patients, and the patient’s own
immune system can help or hinder the progression of a cancer. Finding a simple cure, akin
to using antibiotics to treat infections, requires a deeper understanding of genetics, how the
immune system works and how we age.
Improving our understanding of how these biological processes lead to cancer and
contribute to metastasis is the focus of cancer medical researchers at the University of
Wollongong’s Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute.
The strength of cancer research at the University of Wollongong lies in the coming
together of researchers from different areas - including cell and molecular biologists,
chemists, physicists, clinicians, radiologists and behavioural scientists – in a collaborative
approach. The group is based at the University as well as at local cancer clinics and
includes external national and international collaborators.
Community support has been, and will continue to be, used to build on our cancer
research capacity in the Illawarra to develop novel anti-cancer drug testing and research
into a range of innovative cancer treatment options that will benefit patients in the
Illawarra, across Australia and the world.
Case study
Promising new approach to delivering cancer treatment
•
Funded by Illawarra Cancer Carers, Robert East Memorial-Kiama Rotary, Gay Bates
Memorial Fund, National Health and Medical Research Council and AusIndustry
A University of Wollongong team has developed a ‘single injection’ formulation of two widely
used chemotherapy drugs 5-Fluorouracil (5FU) and its biomodulator leucovorin.
Led by Associate Professor Marie Ranson, Professor Philip Clingan and Professor John
Bremner, the project has developed a new formulation that is pH neutral and does not have
the administration side effects of current 5FU formulations.
It has undergone a detailed preclinical programme including formulation chemistry,
safety/toxicity and tumour response studies. Clinical trial protocols have been generated in
preparation for human trial programme, and the new formulation has a ‘fast-track’ regulatory
application to market by the US Food and Drug Administration.
A UOW start-up company, Warrapharm Pty Ltd, has been created to commercialise this
technology and is currently negotiating with pharmaceutical investor partners to develop the
formulation for cancer applications on commercial terms.
The know-how, experience and potential future monetary returns gained from this process
will also be used to identify and progress novel anticancer drugs and/or methods of
detection.
Kiama Vintage Car and Motorbike Rally
How your support will contribute
Fund raised by the Kiama Vintage Car and Motorbike Rally will be used towards the
following project headed by chemist Dr Danielle Skropeta, working in collaboration with
Associate Professor Marie Ranson and Professor Philip Clingan.
Development of novel anticancer strategies for treating pancreatic cancer: targeting a
tumour’s sweet spot
Pancreatic cancer cells mimic healthy cells by wrapping themselves in a coat of sialic acid
sugars that trick the body into thinking they are healthy, thereby allowing them to evade the
immune system.
This project aims to exploit this process by developing innovative drugs that prevent the
cancer cells from creating their ‘invisible coat’, leaving them starved of sialic acid and naked
to the immune system.
These drugs represent an entirely new class of anticancer agents directed towards
pancreatic cancer, which still has one of the poorest prognoses of all cancers.
There is currently one research student, Mouna Hamad, working full-time on this project.
The Kiama Vintage Car and Motorbike Rally’s generous donation will enable us to put more
senior researchers onto the project to gain momentum to produce material for testing against
cancer cells. This will strengthen an application in 2012 for a substantial 3-5 year project
from Australian government research funding agencies