This year we have a new Chair of the Clinical Network, A/Prof Andrew Wei. We also have six new Executive Committee members, as a number of members came to the end of their terms last year. The team welcomes Andrew to the role and the new members to the Committee. We look forward to working together closely to provide strategic advice and direction to the Clinical Network program and to identify and advocate on issues affecting cancer care in Victoria.
A/Prof Andrew Wei
A/Prof Andrew Wei is an adjunct Associate Professor at Monash University and heads the leukaemia clinical trial program in the Department of Clinical Haematology at The Alfred Hospital, Melbourne. His current activities include clinical and pre-clinical development of new leukemia therapies with a particular emphasis on targeted therapies. A/Prof Wei chairs the acute leukaemia committee for the Australasian Leukaemia and Lymphoma Group and provides advice to the Government on the Independent Health Pricing Authority. He completed his medical training in the University of Melbourne in 1993, specialist training in haematology and haematopathology in 2002 and a PhD in the Department of Molecular Genetics of Cancer at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in 2005. He has an strong interest in investigator lead clinical research.
Mr. Chip Farmer
Mr Farmer has an appointment as a colorectal surgeon at the Alfred, The Avenue and Cabrini Hospitals. He is a member of the Colorectal Consulting Group at Cabrini Hospital. Mr Farmer is a past President of the Colorectal Surgical Society and Senior Lecturer in the Monash University Department of Surgery. Mr Farmer’s practice is confined to colonoscopy and colorectal surgery. He has a particular interest in minimally invasive surgery including Transanal Endoscopic Microsurgery.
A/Prof Joe McKendrick
A/Prof Joe McKendrick is a consultant medical oncologist and previously Director of Medical Oncology, Clinical Haematology and Palliative Care at Eastern Health. He has significant expertise in genitourinary cancers (with a particular interest in testis cancer), gastrointestinal cancers, lymphoma and other haematological malignancies.. He has clinical trial experience in a wide range of cancers and continues as principal investigator in a number of clinical trials in Eastern Health.
A/Prof Sue-Anne McLachlan
A/Prof Sue-Anne McLachlan is the Director of Cancer Services at St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne and an Honorary Principal Fellow at the University of Melbourne. She obtained a Master of Science (specialising in Clinical Epidemiology) from the University of Toronto, Canada). In 2013 Sue-Anne was awarded a Graduate Certificate in Clinical Teaching from the University of Melbourne as well as being awarded approximately $4,000,000 of competitive grant funding (predominately from NHRMC, Cancer Australia, National Breast Cancer Foundation).
Her main research interest and expertise is in the measurement of patient reported outcomes and has established collaborations with several of the co-operative clinical trials groups in Australia including the Australian Gastro-intestinal Trials and Australian Lung Cancer Trials Group. She has been chief investigator on the Kathleen Cunningham Consortium for Research into Familial Breast Cancer (kConFab) Follow-Up Study (kFUS) since its inception in 2001.
Sue-Anne is an active participant in both undergraduate and postgraduate medical teaching and has supervised several students and provided education for members of consumer organisations such as Breast Cancer Network Cancer Council Victoria and Australasian Lung Foundation.
Dr. Simone Reeves
Simone completed her specialty training in Radiation Oncology and focused on treatment of breast, head & neck and brain tumours in her Clinical Research Fellowship at the Olivia Newton John Cancer and Wellness Centre. She subsequently worked as a Consultant Radiation Oncologist at Alfred Health where she treated patients with a broad range of tumour types and developed an interest in Stereotactic Radiotherapy.
Simone believes in a holistic approach to patient care through all phases of treatment and recovery. Her interest in complimentary therapies led her to pursue a two-year Fellowship of Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona USA, which she completed in 2015. Her particular interest is introducing evidence-based lifestyle changes (nutrition, exercise, mind-body modalities) and utilizing traditional medical systems (for example acupuncture) to help patients maintain optimal health, improve wellbeing and reduce cancer recurrence. Simone is a member of the Steering Committee, which oversees the development of BRICC's Wellness Programs.
A/Prof Clare Scott
Associate Professor Clare Scott is a Medical Oncologist at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and Royal Melbourne and Royal Women’s Hospitals and Laboratory Head at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research. She has 20 years’ experience in clinical cancer genetics, including working in Familial Cancer Clinics and in treating breast and ovarian cancer. Her laboratory studies drug resistance in ovarian cancer and rare cancer subtypes, generating patient-specific models to understand and avert resistance to targeted therapeutics. She has been awarded Clinical Fellowships from the Victorian Cancer Agency (2011, 2017) and the Sir Edward Dunlop Cancer Research Fellow from the Cancer Council Victoria (2012).
Mr. Shomik Sengupta
Shomik Sengupta is a urologist with a uro-oncology interest. He trained under the Victorian section of USANZ, then undertook a uro-oncology fellowship at Mayo Clinic, USA. He is a Visiting Consultant and Director of Research & Training Urology Department, Austin Health, and Clinical A/Professor University of Melbourne Department of Surgery. Shomik has a strong research background, completing two higher degrees by research, with more than 80 international publications to date. He is involved in numerous clinical trials, including through the ANZUP Cancer Trials Group, and leads the GU Oncology advisory group within the Urological Society of Australia and New Zealand