A new world-leading cancer clinical trials centre and strides in cellular immunotherapy are opening new avenues for people fighting the disease. Catherine Lewis reports.
A 2023 donation to the NORTH Foundation – official charity partner of the Northern Sydney Local Health District – is continuing to change the face of cancer research. The $20 million gift from Manly philanthropists Greg Poche and the late Kay Van Norton Poche is behind the opening of the new Early Phase Unit, part of the NORTH Sydney Trials and Research Van Norton Poche (NORTH STAR VNP) Cancer Clinical Trials Centre.
Located at the Sydney North Health Precinct, which includes Royal North Shore Hospital (RNSH), the unit will offer world-leading trials for patients on the North Shore and across Australia. In partnership with the renowned Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre (MSK) in New York, the unit will help accelerate the development of new cancer treatments, positioning Australia at the forefront of international cancer research.
Initial clinical trials are underway for patients with lung and brain cancer to receive specialised treatment close to home, with further trials in the pipeline for a broader range of cancers. Data from both the Sydney hub and MSK will be used for the trials. “For patients facing cancer, access to a clinical trial can provide another treatment option at a time when it is needed most,” Gilbert Lorquet, CEO of the NORTH Foundation, tells NL. “This centre will help bring promising new therapies to patients sooner and, importantly, work to extend that opportunity beyond metropolitan Sydney to people across regional, rural, and remote Australia.
“It is an extraordinary example of what philanthropy can make possible. (The Poche’s) generosity has helped turn that vision into something that will benefit patients for generations,” he adds.
The Northern Sydney Local Health District (NSLHD) has a five-year all-cause cancer survival rate of 72% – one of the highest in Australia. Professor Stephen Clarke, NORTH STAR medical director and RNSH oncologist, tells NL: “(The district) has a cancer-specific mortality that is 14% lower than the national average for all cancers, as well as 27% better for lung cancer. Contributing factors are low smoking rates, fitter patients, and ready access to excellent care. The new centre will not only give patients access to new cancer treatments at the earliest time possible, but also access to studies and technology that are part of a collaboration between NSLHD and MSK,” Professor Clarke adds.
Eighteen months after being treated for throat cancer at the age of 65, Michel noticed another lump in his neck. His cancer had returned, and he was offered the chance to participate in a clinical trial at the NORTH STAR Centre. “My daughter encouraged me to do it,” he tells NL. “She told me if it works, wonderful, and if it doesn’t then at least you’ve tried.”
Michel attends the centre every three weeks and his clinical trial coordinator, Amy Williams, tells NL that the results have been ‘encouraging.’ “Since joining the trial, Michel has shown a positive treatment response, with scans confirming significant tumour shrinkage and no evidence of disease progression elsewhere in the body,” Amy says.
“I’ve become part of the learning process,” Michel says. “What researchers learn from people like me could help the next generation of patients. These trials matter and they give people hope.”
Blood and skin cancers are two of this country’s most devastating diseases, with one Australian diagnosed with melanoma every 30 minutes, according to Melanoma Institute Australia. Current immunotherapies offer a cure for around 50% of patients with advanced melanoma and treatments are long, toxic, and costly – the projected economic burden of blood cancers is tipped to pass $71.9 billion annually by 2035. Enter RNSH’s new Cancer Cellular Immunotherapy Service, which will offer clinical trials, develop next-generation therapies, and establish a unique Australian Cancer Immunology Biobank.
The ‘dedicated service and research powerhouse’ – which will be integrated with the Northern Sydney Cancer Centre and NORTH STAR VNP – aims to deliver treatments locally, run high-impact clinical trials for blood cancers, melanoma, lung and other hard-to-treat cancers and advance the next generation of immunotherapies through global research. It also hopes to lessen side effects from traditional therapies such as chemotherapy and radiation which are debilitating, with one in three patients unable to return to work post-treatment. The service is already running or preparing four cellular immunotherapy clinical trials for non-Hodgkin lymphoma, multiple myeloma, chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, and advanced melanoma, says the NORTH Foundation’s website.
Cellular immunotherapy – including chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy and tumour infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) therapy – have changed survival outcomes by leveraging the body’s own immune cells to seek and destroy cancer, without harming healthy cells, according to the NORTH Foundation’s website. For advanced melanoma, five-year survival for those who do not respond to standard checkpoint immunotherapies, has gone from almost 0% to 20%, and for large B-cell lymphoma that is resistant to chemotherapy, survival beyond five years has jumped from 0% to over 40%.
Cellular immunotherapies offer a highly targeted, one-shot therapy and can often be administered in a single session, meaning patients can return to normal life earlier.
To help advance the future of cancer clinical trials, support NORTH STAR VNP by donating through The North Foundation website.