In 2017, Cancer Council Victoria, with support from the Victorian Cancer Agency, awarded $2.5M in funding to four projects in Victoria that proposed innovative ways of improving patient access to cancer clinical trials. Funding was awarded as part of Cancer Council Victoria’s Cancer Trials Management Scheme, which aims to build clinical trial capacity and recruitment in Victoria.
Collectively, the four projects are reducing barriers for all patients trying to access clinical trials, including those from rural or regional parts of Victoria and of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
Each of the projects has now completed their year one milestones and had their progress reviewed. The project titles and recipients are outlined below:
Project: Regional Trial Network-Vic (RTN-Vic)
Clinical Lead: Dr Craig Underhill, Border Medical Oncology Research Unit
Project: Providing equitable, convenient and efficient access to novel cancer therapies: A Phase I
outreach program
Clinical Lead: Dr Jayesh Desai, University of Melbourne
Project: Accessing Cancer Clinical Trials for People of the West
Clinical Lead: Dr Dishan Herath, Western Health
Project: Equity of access to “state of the art” clinical trials for every patient
Clinical Lead: Prof Michael MacManus, University of Melbourne