Changing the outcomes
Calvary Mater Newcastle came out winners at the 2019 Annual Scientific Meeting (ASM) of Australasian Gastro-Intestinal Trials Group (AGITG) held this September.
The meeting was themed ‘Challenging the enigmatic nature of gastro-intestinal cancers’, with a focus on rare and underfunded cancers and cancer subtypes.
Congratulations to a dynamic team that included staff from Medical Oncology, Radiation Oncology and Clinical Trials, who were winners of the AGITG 2019 Best of Posters for ‘Palliative Oesophageal Chemoradiotherapy: A Phase I Clinical Trial’.
The Phase I study looked at improving dysphagia for patients with oesophageal cancer. Dr Swetha Sridharan, Radiation Oncology Staff Specialist, accepted the award on behalf of the group.
Professor Jarad Martin, Radiation Oncology Staff Specialist, said of the win, “This is essentially the best proffered paper prize for a very prestigious meeting, so a great achievement. This success is naturally built on the contributions of a huge team. A few I’d like to single out are Jasmin who wrote the original protocol, Fiona who has championed it within Medical Oncology, Jo who helped for a long time with the accrual, and Brandan who assisted with the analysis.
“We are now gearing up for the successor study PALEO where we incorporate immunotherapy and SBRT as well, aiming to open later this year.”
Congratulations also to the Medical Oncology Research (MOR) Trials group who received the AGITG Outstanding Site Award, accepted on behalf of the group by Naomi Knoblauch, Medical Oncology Clinical Trials Data Manager.
Kim Adler, Medical Oncology Clinical Trial Nurse Consultant, said, “MOR Trials is currently recruiting to six AGITG trials, with another due to activate. We often meet or exceed our recruitment targets, and for ASCOLT and DYNAMIC-Rectal we have enrolled double the number of patients expected. We are also participating in sub studies for these trials which ask important scientific questions.”
Calvary Mater Newcastle is responsible for the management of the ClinTrial Refer Oncology NSW smartphone app, which lists actively recruiting studies at 38 sites across the state. This has led to more patients from private centres being referred to the site.
AGITG is the only research organisation in the Australasian region with a focus on gastro-intestinal cancers. Widely known throughout Australasia as the premier meeting in the gastro-intestinal (GI) cancer space, the AGITG Annual Scientific Meeting provides a forum where, on behalf of GI cancer patients, the enigmatic nature of gastro-intestinal cancer is challenged.