The lives of thousands of Australians battling incurable or advanced cancers could be saved or extended thanks to a pioneering national genomics initiative.
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More than 23,000 Australians living with cancer will be given free access to cutting-edge genomic profiling, with their results clinically assessed by an expert team and matched to personalised treatments including early-stage clinical trials.
The Prospect initiative - or Precision Oncology Screening Platform Enabling Clinical Trials - marks the nation's largest cancer genomics program.
Led by the University of NSW-based Australian Genomic Cancer Medicine Centre, it will collaborate with other research centres and treatment services across Australia.
David Thomas, head of genomic cancer medicine at the Garvan Institute and project lead, said the program will fast-track patients to personalised cancer treatments.
"Genomic medicine allows us to look at the genetics of a person's cancer, rather than treating it based on location," Professor Thomas said.
"This allows us to understand inherited cancer risk and find more effective treatments for people with cancer."
It is hoped to generate 650 high-skilled local jobs, a $525 million investment in local clinical trials and $135m in savings to the national health system.
The project will also open up new treatment paths for people across Australia with difficult to treat cancers including ovarian and pancreatic cancers, sarcomas and cancer metastasis.
The initiative will launch at UNSW on Thursday.
Jasmine, a GP and mother of three from Sydney's Northern Beaches, hopes to treat metastatic pancreatic cancer with precision medicine after genetic testing revealed she held the BRCA2 gene.
A molecular screening and therapeutics clinical trial identified a targeted therapy that has since significantly reduced the size of her cancer.
Kathren, a 40-year-old mother from Port Macquarie, also saw her pancreatic cancer shrink after genomic profiling revealed a mutation that qualified her for an immunotherapy trial.
Just five months after giving birth to her daughter, she was told the cancer had spread to her liver, forming a 15cm tumour too large for surgery.
But genomic profiling revealed a mutation that qualified her for an immunotherapy trial which saw her liver tumour shrink by 60 per cent within two months, completely disappearing within a year.
Australian Associated Press
