7 minute read
Message from the Chair
Welcome to this edition of UPdate, the newsletter of the Australian & New Zealand Urogenital and Prostate Cancer Trials Group Ltd (ANZUP)!
I remember my 10th birthday vividly. I had my closest friends around; we had a great day of fun including the entertainment of going to a movie, complete with treats; and my young all-things-spaceloving mind was blown away by going to the museum to see an actual rock from the moon. It was sealed in a glass bubble full of nitrogen, and was a thousand shades of grey and brown with tantalising glints reflecting in the lights. I stood there wrapped in the wonder of it all, and to this day I will never understand the mind of the lady next to me who said, “Huh, it’s just a rock.” Then we went home, worn out and happy, and afterwards as always I had the job of writing thank you cards to everyone who gave me presents on such a notable occasion.
This year we are celebrating ANZUP’s 10th birthday, and as I write we are not long out from our Annual Scientific Meeting in Sydney in July. The sheer happiness and wonder of my own 10th birthday (so many, many years ago…) have come back afresh. The ASM was another chance to renew connections with old friends and make connections with new ones. The program was engrossing and entertaining, and full of treats. I was amazed by the science and by the humanity of what we do and who we are. We went home buzzing, needing a rest but at the same time energised. And now here I am, writing a thank you card to you all. The only difference is that I did not meet a single rock-brained person, and for that I am very grateful.
The ASM is a very important part of ANZUP’s activities. We continually need to learn more about our fields but also to hear about what others are doing. That in turn triggers new ideas and connections, and before we know it we have novel research proposals and trial ideas coming through, or new collaborations, or challenges to our everyday status quo. We were able to hear and learn from local and international experts at the ASM and then talk and connect with them in informal settings, often leading to new links.
Several of our well-travelled and conferenceexperienced international guests have told us that this was the best meeting they have attended all year, which is high praise but not surprising to those of us who were there and agree! The ASM provides opportunities for us to present our work and in particular we are able to support early career or junior researchers to highlight their activity in a positive and constructive setting. These are the people who will lead our organisation in the future and who will care for us and those we love, so it is important that we get this right. We are able to provide research grants and other awards to celebrate the high quality of the work so many of us are doing. And most importantly we enjoy and celebrate the community we have built for a common purpose: to improve the outcomes for everyone affected by genitourinary cancers, by doing clinical trials that matter and that will change practice. Thanks to Henry Woo and his amazing convening committee for doing such a great job, and thanks in advance to David Pryor who has taken on the role of convenor for our 2019 ASM in Brisbane.
Many of you have provided feedback on the ASM. This is very important and valuable for us. We need to know what works and what does not. We are happy to take comments and suggestions throughout the year as well, so feel free to provide them even if the survey is closed.
ANZUP’s activities continue throughout the whole year, and our 10th anniversary year is no exception. The 2018 Sydney Pedalthon will take place on 18 September, and we are already deep in planning for the next Melbourne Pedalthon in 2019. We are planning our next Preceptorship for later in the year, as well as our Best of GU symposium, and already thinking about the 2019 meetings and activities. One of the great things we have been able to achieve through our fundraising is the Below the Belt Research Fund. We have already awarded $806,000 over the last 3 years to help support researchers linked to ANZUP. This year we have been able to support 8 projects totalling $275,000, and you will read the details of these awards inside these pages. The field of applications was very high quality and it is increasingly difficult to work out which of the many applications we were unable to fund. We hope to continue to grow this resource in order to support more research in the future. The ANZUP Board has agreed that none of the costs of this Below the Belt fundraising will come out of the donations and sponsorship we receive for it, meaning that all of it is reinvested where it will do the most good. This is a powerful message underscoring our commitment to this initiative.
We are of course a clinical trials group, and our trials form the centre of our activities. In our short existence we have run 23 (16 ANZUP led and 7 co-badged) trials and enrolled thousands of patients across Australia, New Zealand and internationally.
ANZUP is recognised internationally as an important contributor to the global initiative to drive genitourinary cancer clinical research, and the outcomes of our trials are awaited with great interest. Again, you will find information about the trials elsewhere in the newsletter, and you can also be kept up to date by our regular emails. To mention only a few, since our last newsletter we have completed recruitment to the ENZARAD trial; the TheraP 177Lu-PSMA prostate cancer trial is recruiting well with nearly all sites open; the UNISoN trial recruitment is far exceeding expectations; BCG/ mitomycin bladder trial is also recruiting well; and we have several new trials in various stages of planning. Our Pain Free TRUS B trial recruitment has accelerated considerably, due in no small part to our activation of more sites in New Zealand. Our four Concept Development Workshops once again brought together people from multiple disciplines to survey the landscape and come up with many exciting suggestions for future trials. Thanks again to all of you involved in this great progress. Don’t forget you can contribute to all of this at any time by participating in various committees or other processes within ANZUP, and you are most welcome.
Our Board continues to meet regularly and provides excellent oversight of the running of ANZUP. Four of the elected directors (Guy Toner, Shomik Sengupta, Henry Woo, and myself) were re-elected at the Annual General Meeting held on 9 July 2018. Thank you to my fellow directors for re-standing, our continuing directors for ongoing brilliant work, and to all of you for supporting us. Thanks as always to our great ANZUP team: our CEO Marg McJannett, Lucy Byers, Michelle Bowers, Gillian Bailey, Simran Chawla, Nima Amatya, and Christine Garforth. We are very sad that Michelle will be leaving us. Thanks Michelle for everything you have done for us, and all the very best for what comes next for you.
ANZUP is leaving childhood behind. Adolescence will probably bring growing pains as it often does, but for us that is a great problem to have. I have a feeling that teenage angst is not going to be an issue.
Thanks for bringing us to this tenth year, poised for many more. What a joy and privilege to be part of it. Let us never forget why we are doing it, and remember: it’s even possible to bring bits of the moon within reach.
Please enjoy this edition of UPdate.
...we have completed recruitment to the ENZARAD trial; the TheraP 177Lu-PSMA prostate cancer is recruiting well with nearly all sites open; the UNISoN trial recruitment is far exceeding expectations; BCG/mitomycin bladder trial is also recruiting well; and we have several new trials in various stages of planning.
IAN DAVIS Chair
