In Memoriam

Matthew Carr Dr Ian Roos OAM

Every member and friend of ANZUP plays a part on the way to eliminating and alleviating the devastating effects of below the belt cancers that this close knit group specialises in. We are all cognisant that outcomes are, at times, less than optimal. But each day, our individual and collective efforts put us one step closer to achieving our high objectives.

Earlier this year a member of ANZUP’s Consumer Advisory Panel passed away as a result of testicular cancer, one of the very diseases that we are working hard to prevent.

Matthew Carr, Army Major, husband and father of two, died on 31 January, 2015. He was only 38 years old. He packed much into those short years with tours in Iraq and Afghanistan as a professional soldier, a recently completed Masters degree and much more. But perhaps the standout aspect of Matthew’s life was his commitment to helping the next guy.

From the time of Matthew’s diagnosis with testicular cancer in his early 20’s, he became heavily involved in promoting awareness, ensuring young men heard the message about his disease. In 2009 he published his biography ‘Battle Scars’ which concentrated on how he dealt with his cancer. He was an impressive and engaging communicator and continued to work tirelessly with ANZUP, despite his personally deteriorating prognosis.

There is possibly no better way of expressing his passing than to say that our dear colleague died on active service.

RAY ALLEN Deputy Chair, ANZUP Consumer Advisory Panel Ian was an academic, an advocate, an ally and an asset. He was a stalwart supporter of ANZUP, the broader prostate cancer community and indeed the whole cooperative cancer clinical trials group structure in Australia. I vividly remember, after we were unsuccessful in our first application to Cancer Australia for funding to set up ANZUP, how Ian spent considerable time with me outlining where we could strengthen our application to the point where we were ultimately successful. That conversation and many that followed led to our governance structure and in particular our Consumer Advisory Panel, which has been seen by many organisations as a shining example of how community and consumer involvement should work.

Ian was never short of an opinion and recognised that not everyone always agreed with him. He had a unique and effective style of communication. However, he was always willing to listen and take a balanced view and I know that I personally always came away from our interactions with a new and broader perspective. Ian was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2009 “for service to the community through raising awareness of men’s health issues,” a richly deserved honour.

Ian was a cancer “survivor” for a long time and sadly we can no longer say that he is. The word “survivor” is such an imperfect one: passing through the experience of cancer is about more than simply surviving, and in many respects the term can undervalue the memory of those who eventually do not survive their cancer. ANZUP is grateful to Ian Roos for all he did for us and the broader cancer community and we will remember him fondly. We were in fact already looking at ways that we could honour Ian’s memory in a longer lasting way and we hope to have more information for you on this soon.

For now: we have a job to do and people to help. That is the best way to honour Ian and all the others whom we serve.

Nicholas Buchan CTC Fellows

Welcome to our new Board member, Nicholas Buchan from New Zealand. Nick is a urologist at Christchurch Public Hospital and Urology Associates as well as Medical Director at Canterbury Urology Research Trust.

After initial house officer years in Christchurch he trained in Urology in Brisbane and spent a couple of years in Vancouver undertaking a Uro-oncology Fellowship at the Vancouver Prostate Centre before returning to a job in Christchurch.

Urological surgery has evolved rapidly in recent years with the increasing use of new technology including advanced laparoscopy and more recently robotics. Nick sees a real need to develop and integrate robust clinical trials in surgical technique and outcomes to aid the introduction of these new technologies to ensure they add value for the patient and are cost effective for the public as a whole.

Nick’s appointment to the board was preceded by his existing involvement with ANZUP due to an interest in clinical research and his involvement in a New Zealand Genito-urinary cancer multi-disciplinary group the GUSIG. He is passionate about the collaborative dynamic environment and has personally valued the mentoring environment that it provides.

He believes that clinical trials are obviously a vital cog in the wheel of medical innovation and the testing of new ideas and techniques. Through Canterbury Urology Research Trust the Urologists in Christchurch have since 1997 been involved in both pharmaceutical and investigator lead research. Nicholas believes that as ANZUP evolves the ease of involvement of New Zealand sites in ANZUP trials will be a more streamlined process.

With three young children, a passion for golf and mountain biking we look forward to his energetic input on the board.

Nicky Lawrence

Nicky completed her Medical Oncology training in Auckland, New Zealand and moved to Sydney to work at the CTC. She has a keen interest in genitourinary cancers and currently works with ANZUP as a clinical research fellow and is a PhD candidate through the CTC (University of Sydney). She is passionate about oncology research and excited about working in a research environment with the collaborative trial groups. She recently had the opportunity to present Dr Reuben Broom’s concept of the addition of bisphosphonate therapy to first line pazopanib for patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma and bone metastases. More recently she lent a hand to edit our Hot Topic article in this edition of UPdate (page 1).

Howard Chan

Howard is a 3rd year advance trainee in Medical Oncology who did his two core years of medical oncology training in the Liverpool network. He did his basic physician trainee in the St Vincent’s network and also did a post graduate medical degree with the University of Queensland. His undergraduate degree was in Biomedical Engineering completed at University of NSW.

He is currently working full time at the NHMRC CTC as a research fellow with ANZUP and ATIG.

As a resident at Liverpool hospital he had the opportunity to work in the medical oncology/ haematology ward and watching the patients go through their journey inspired him to be part of this area of medicine. He is motivated by the constant search for innovative ways to combat cancer.

Dr Raymond Chan

Sandra Stockley

A warm welcome to Dr Raymond Chan who was endorsed by the ANZUP Board on 18 February as a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee on the recommendation of CNSA.

Dr Chan is the Director of Research and Innovation at West Moreton Hospital and Health Service, Queensland Health and also holds a joint position as Deputy Director Research & Nurse Researcher at Cancer Care Services, Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital (RBWH), and NHMRC Health Professional Research Fellow at the Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, Queensland University of Technology (QUT).

He is a clinician- academic with established leadership at a local, national and international level and is the President for Cancer Nurses Society of Australia (CNSA).

The SAC, which consists of members representing the major disciplines relevant to ANZUP, plus the Chairs of our Bladder, Kidney, Prostate and Testicular cancer subcommittees look forward to the contributions Dr Chan’s appointment will bring.

Welcome to Sandra who has joined the team at ANZUP. Sandra will be working two days a week across a range of editorial and event duties.

Our Consumer Magazine

Issue 3 of the ANZUP Consumer Magazine “A Little Below the Belt” is due to be published at the end of May. This publication will provide our consumer community with accessible and accurate information about the work ANZUP does along with stories of a patient’s journey through clinical trials.

The next edition focuses on our regional and remote consumers, clinicians, and trial coordinators. For many patients, the decision to have treatment has to be weighed up against time away from home and long journeys away from family and work. Having access to ANZUP’s clinical trials in a regional location can be the difference between choosing to be treated or not.

We know we have an active readership online through issuu.com http://issuu.com/ anzup/docs/anzup_issue_ammended and encourage you to consider sharing this engaging and informative publication with your patients in your waiting room.

You can access previous editions on the ANZUP website http://www.anzup.org.au/ docview.aspx?id=233 or contact ANZUP liz.thorp@anzup.org.au to have printed copies sent directly to you.

If you have a patient or former patient you think would be interested in having their story told please let us know. The value of these “my own experience” stories cannot be understated. Likewise, if you want to help us talk to our consumers about your own experience as an ANZUP member please let us know.