Radio Rare

Two-year-old Luna’s family is fundraising for treatments only available overseas for her rare childhood cancer, neuroblastoma. They sat down with Gary Hardgrave on the 4BC Radio Drive program to share their experiences.

People living with cancer urgently need action on expanded access to precision therapies

Over the past two decades, our ability to rapidly obtain genomic information on an individual and their cancer has led to a dramatic shift in how we can diagnose, treat, monitor and prevent cancer, leading to an era of precision oncology.

With this expanded knowledge of cancer there are several promising treatments that can specifically target the drivers of an individual’s cancer, that are already under review through Australia’s health technology assessment process. Too many people living with cancer in Australia still don’t have access; and they can’t afford to wait.

In this edition of The Conversation Hour, hosted by ABC Radio Melbourne, we hear the experiences of callers who have been diagnosed with a rare cancer and their families. We also learn about the latest developments in treatment and support with guests Professor Clare Scott who is a clinician scientist, leading the ovarian and rare cancer laboratory at WEHI and Danielle Spence from the Cancer Council Victoria.

Credits

Richelle Hunt, Presenter

All rights belong to ABC Radio Melbourne.

Noel Carmona, living with thymic carcinoma, and Rare Cancers Australia CEO Christine Cockburn, sat down with ABC Radio in the Upper Hunter to talk about the cost of treatment for people diagnosed with a rare cancer, and what needs to change to make things fair for rare.

Professor Grant McArthur

· The challenges of personalising cancer treatment

· How the moon landing sparked a career in medicine

· Why he chose to specialise in cancer, and melanoma

· What gets him out of bed in the morning, and what drives him

· The vision of the VCCC, and how it came about

· Why he moved from a full-time research and clinical role to a leadership position

· The sensitivities around prescribing medications that are not PBS funded

· The gaps between published evidence, TGA approval and PBS listing

· Ideas on how to speed up patient access to life-extending and life-saving treatment

· The challenges and opportunities of developing combination treatments

· How we can continue to improve cancer outcomes in the next 10 years

More about Professor Grant McArthur

In this episode, RCA Chief Executive Richard Vines speaks to Professor Ian Frazer about:

Ian and his colleague co-invented the technology behind the world’s first cervical cancer vaccine.

He is the founding CEO of the Translational Research Institute in Brisbane, heads a biotechnology company working on new vaccine technologies, and chairs the advisory board of the Medical Research Future Fund.

Ann Single

- The limitations of Australia’s Health Technology Assessment (HTA) process

More about Ann Single

Professor John Zalcberg

Carlo Montagner

Risks and rewards: getting new medications into the hands of patients

In this episode, RCA Chief Executive Richard Vines speaks to Carlo Montagner about: 

More about Carlo Montagner: Specialised Therapeutics Australia (STA) is a pharmaceutical company that has been instrumental in helping Australians living with rare cancer to access new medications that would otherwise be out of reach. Before co-founding STA, Carlo held senior roles at some of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies.  #thoughtleaderseries

In this episode, RCA Chief Executive Richard Vines speaks to Professor Shelley Dolan about:

Shelley began her career as a registered nurse in the UK, rising through the ranks to become Deputy Chief Executive at one of the largest hospitals in Europe and also at Europe’s largest comprehensive cancer centre.

She has over 30 years of experience in healthcare, specialising in critical care and cancer nursing.