The Hunter's Cancer Clinical Research Network has been recognised for its tenacious efforts to connect people to important, life-changing cancer trials.
The network, which is part of Hunter Cancer Research Alliance and includes Calvary Mater, John Hunter, Newcastle Private, Lake Macquarie Private and Tamworth Base hospitals, has received the NSW Premier's Award for Outstanding Clinical Trials Unit.
It was awarded for its high level of enrolments in clinical trials. In 2019-2020, the Cancer Clinical Research Network also robustly recruited to investigator-initiated cancer treatment trials and had many units engaged in Phase I trials - dramatically improving access for local participants who no longer needed to travel long distances for these specialised trials.
Network chairperson and Calvary Mater medical oncology staff specialist James Lynam said research showed that patients on clinical trials did better than those not on trials, and the job of the network was to recruit as many people as possible for those trials.
He said that work included taking trials out to the people, which had been accelerated with the impact of COVID-19. Funding received from the award win will be used to open up studies in different parts of the region.
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"We know there is an amazing disparity between rural and metropolitan cancer care, not through lack of effort, but lack of the same opportunities," Dr Lynam said.
"We having been looking at how we can open up trials at other sites, so people don't have to travel."
Chief Cancer Officer and CEO of the Cancer Institute NSW, Professor David Currow said making clinical trials more accessible, particularly in regional areas such as Hunter New England, was crucial to increasing treatment options and improving quality of life for people with cancer.
"The Cancer Clinical Research Network shows that working collaboratively, with researchers and health workers from both public and private providers, has the potential to boost enrolments in investigator-initiated cancer treatment trials," Professor Currow said.
"Importantly, they are breaking down geographical boundaries - providing more cancer patients access to potentially life-changing clinical trials.
"Participation in trials is an important focus area for the state because it provides a pathway for new and improved treatments to make their way from bench to bedside."
Dr Lynam said receiving the award showed that "there's a world outside Sydney" when it comes to this sort of cancer research, and was a testament to both the researchers and patients who had run and been involved in the clinical trials.
"They're the real heroes," he said. "The most important people in this are the patients."
One of those patients is Rutherford's Kathleen "Dell" Parrott, who joined an immunotherapy trial at the Calvary Mater last year after being diagnosed with stage 3 esophageal cancer.
Being over 80 years of age, she was advised against surgery or chemotherapy, so joined the trial for quality of life, but was amazed when her tumour had disappeared less than a year after joining the trial.
"It was a wonderful surprise," she said.
Ms Parrott said she was joyed to see the network had been honoured with the award, saying it was well deserved for all the hard work they had put in to help people like her.
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