Funded projects

A critical appraisal and exploration of New Zealand cancer-related clinical practice guidelines.

Cancer-related preventive, clinical and palliative care should be informed by high quality, rigorous evidence-based clinical practice guidelines. This project will critically look at the quality of cancer-related guidelines in New Zealand. It will explore the experiences of guideline developers, funders and panel members. The results will have an impact at a national level for cancer prevention, screening, diagnosis, treatment and palliative care. The project will lead to better informed, more rigorous guideline development in New Zealand; with an emphasis on high quality, user-friendly outputs with clear plans to transfer new knowledge to health professionals, patients and their families.

Helen’s Story – the Film. Supply of DVDs to all NZ hospices.

A recent documentary film “Helen’s Story” will be available for loan or viewing at every hospice in New Zealand, thanks to a grant from the Genesis Oncology Trust. “Helen’s Story” tells the heart-warming story of Helen Ngahuia, a young mother with terminal cancer, the response of her teenage children, and the support of her multi-cultural whanau. There are many twists and turns in this uplifting tale – some of which you won’t see coming – that gives an intimate insight into what a hospice really does, and how love, family and whanau can get you through anything.

New Zealand One Day Concept Development Workshop.

The aim of this workshop is to help early career researchers develop their new ideas for cancer clinical research studies. Teaching includes how to turn an idea into a successful clinical trial, important elements of trial design, as well as small group discussions on the research ideas of the participants. The goals are to train early career researchers in clinical research methods and to increase New Zealand’s capacity in clinical cancer research.

Genesis Oncology Trust palliative care breakfast lecture series.

Now in its 13th year, the Genesis Oncology Trust Lecture Series continues to provide an easily accessible palliative care education opportunity. Delivered via teleconference, the lecture series is attended by approximately 400 people each month. Registered sites throughout the country participate in the series. Lecture resources are also available online, with over 1000 lecture downloads during the last 12 months. Thanks to the generosity of the Genesis Oncology Trust the lectures will continue to be available without charge to registered participants in 2017.

Cohesin-mediated regulation of RUNX1 in acute myeloid leukaemia.

Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML) is a common form of leukaemia and is increasing in frequency due to an ageing population. Cohesin is a protein that functions in cell division and gene regulation. At least one quarter of AMLs have abnormal cohesin function. Cohesin regulates expression of a gene already well known to cause AML: RUNX1. I hypothesise that cohesin mutations cause AML by leading to abnormal RUNX1 expression. I will test this hypothesis using multiple molecular approaches in leukaemia cells and a zebrafish in vivo model. This research aims to discover how abnormal cohesin causes leukaemia.

Comparative genomic profiling and assessment of DNA repair capacity in sequential tumour samples of patients with ovarian cancer: a study to characterise chemotherapy resistant clones.

Despite advances in medicine, ovarian cancer remains a lethal gynaecological malignancy. Due to its silent nature and lack of adequate screening tools, women usually present with advanced, incurable disease. Although this cancer responds very well to initial chemotherapy, most patients relapse and become resistant to chemotherapy. The mechanisms by which this cancer becomes resistant to chemotherapy are largely unknown. Currently there are few novel targeted therapies available for patients with ovarian cancer. This study aims to identify the mechanisms underlying resistance to chemotherapy and identify novel therapeutic targets, ultimately aiming to improve survival outcomes for these women.

To attend the 6th Clinical Epigenetics International Meeting. March 2nd - 4th, 2016, Düsseldorf, Germany.

To undertake Postgraduate Diploma in Medical Science (Palliative Care), University of Auckland

To attend the 11th Palliative Care Congress, (9-11 March 2016) in Glasgow, Scotland.

To complete Dissertation for Masters of Nursing through Auckland University.

To undertake a Master in Social Work at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.

To attend ENIGMA (Evidence-based Network for the Interpretation of Germline Mutant Alleles) meeting – 27th-29th April 2016.

Can stimulation of human antigen presenting cells with TLR ligands improve their capacity to initiate a T-lymphocyte response to a vaccine targeting cancer?

When designing vaccines to treat cancer, we can exploit the body’s own immune system. Sentinel immune cells are specialised immune cells that detect foreign viruses and bacteria, and initiate immune responses to kill them. Sentinel immune cells have special receptors to detect viruses and bacteria; the aim of this research project is to identify molecules that will bind to these receptors and stimulate the sentinel immune cells to initiate an immune response. These molecules can then be included in cancer vaccines so they instruct the patients own sentinel immune cells to stimulate an immune response that will destroy the cancer.

Immunological markers that predict outcome of CIN2

Every year around 1550 women are diagnosed with high-grade pre-malignant cervical cancer in New Zealand. It is now known that in around half of those women disease will resolve without intervention. The purpose of this study is to identify immune markers that predict outcome, so that women who need treatment will be identified, and those whose disease will regress without intervention can be conservatively managed. The outcomes are better diagnosis and reduced over-treatment of women with this common disease.

Biology of megakaryocytic cancers

This project will improve our understanding of blood cancers that affect megakaryocytes (platelet precursors). No specific treatments are available for patients with these disorders, and outcomes are unsatisfactory. Most frequently affected are children with Down syndrome and older people, whose tolerance of chemotherapy is particularly poor. While new therapies are needed for all patients, these two patient groups are especially vulnerable. Our work will interrogate megakaryocytic cancers using modern methods. We will examine mechanisms that lead to disease development and aim to identify new therapy targets. Our tests should help characterise patient cancers and guide development of novel therapies.