By analysing unexpected and unusual responses to cancer treatment, we can understand more about how treatments work – and how we can make them work better.
This is a collaborative study between The Garvan Institute of Medical Research, The Kinghorn Cancer Centre and clinicians and patients nationwide. We aim to engage the oncology community, to recruit and analyse patients with an exceptional response to cancer therapy and learn from these responses.
Similar to study of rare disease, study of rare responses to treatment can provide valuable information. By analysing unexpected and unusual responses to cancer treatment, we can better understand how treatments work – and how we can make them work better.
Research of treatment outliers can give information about:
- new treatment targets
- predictive biomarkers of toxicity
- predictive biomarkers of response and non-response
- prognostic biomarkers.
Participation in the program
We are partnering with clinicians, institutions and patients passionate about improving cancer care through precision medicine.
Patient cases that are included in the study will form an ongoing collaboration with the referring clinician, to capitalise on treating-clinician knowledge and insight. Research output and publications will be co-branded and/or co-authored.
Sequencing data generated from the project will ultimately be made available in a public repository, as a research tool and reference dataset to contribute to the progression of genomics.
Recruitment
We will initially seek referrals from clinicians for patients they believe meet the criteria, after discussing the program with their patient.
The clinician will then refer the patient to us via a standard medical referral. Please refer to the recruitment process for more information.
Who we are
This program is a collaboration between The Garvan Institute of Medical Research and The Kinghorn Cancer Centre (part of St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney). It is supported by the Kinghorn Foundation and Bioplatforms Australia.