CEO Update

A message from the CEO, Margaret McJannett

What a year it has been. With all the challenges put before us, our number one priority has remained to conduct high quality clinical trials research to generate evidence and improve treatments and outcomes for patients and their families affected by below the belt (prostate, bladder, kidney, penile and testicular) cancers.

This time last year we were planning and looking forward to another year of hosting our pipeline of innovative concept development workshops and meetings; developing and conducting our clinical trials; and rolling out our key fundraising events, the Below the Belt Pedalthons. We had a plan, AND then came COVID. We had to fine tune our operations in order to maintain productivity, while ensuring the safety and wellbeing of patients, research participants and our health care professionals and staff involved in patient care and research remained paramount.

Despite all this I am delighted to say that all of those activities did happen. Some required a total restructure, many required additional technology and endless Zoom meetings but thanks to the dedication and commitment of our ANZUP members, now 1800, we opened several exciting new trials and all our other existing trials continued despite temporary suspensions.

We are also very excited to announce and celebrate another major success for our ENZAMET trial. The ENZAMET trial has been awarded the Australian Clinical Trials Alliance (ACTA) Trial of the Year Award, the STInG Excellence in Trial Statistics Award and the ACTA Consumer Involvement Awards. A hat trick in clinical trials!!

ACTA is the national peak body supporting and representing networks of clinician researchers conducting investigator-initiated clinical trials within the Australian healthcare system. The awards are designed to celebrate Australia’s world-leading clinical trials expertise and promote the role, importance and value of clinical trials in Australia.

Being awarded all 3 categories is an incredible achievement but so too are the results of the ENZAMET trial. The results published in the New England Journal of Medicine are already impacting on global practice. This trial demonstrated a 33% improvement in overall survival and a 60% improvement in progression-free survival for men with metastatic hormone sensitive prostate cancer who received enzalutamide.

These awards highlight that clinical trials are the most effective way of determining which treatments, alone or in combination, will provide the greatest survival benefit to the patient with the least adverse outcomes. We acknowledge and thank the 1125 patients for their participation, the principal investigators, coinvestigators, trials coordinators, nurses and data managers at the 83 cancer centres in Australia, New Zealand, United States, Canada, Ireland and the United Kingdom for their dedication and enthusiasm. We thank Astellas for their financial support and study drug.

Earlier this year we launched our latest theranostic trial ENZA-p. This randomised phase 2 trial aims to compare the effectiveness of enzalutamide in combination with Lutetium-177 PSMA, versus enzalutamide alone, for the treatment of prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer remains the commonest cancer and the second commonest cause of cancer related death in Australian men. Lutetium-177 PSMA (Lu-PSMA for short) is a new treatment in advanced prostate cancer. Lu-PSMA is a radioactive molecule that attaches to the surface of prostate cancer cells throughout the body.

The ENZA-p trial aims to determine if adding Lu-PSMA to enzalutamide overcomes resistance to treatment and prolongs treatment responses. This study is being led by Professor Louise Emmett from St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney. The study has now recruited 12 /160 patients since opening in August. It is also open at 5 out of 13 sites. ANZUP received funding from the Prostate Cancer Research Alliance (PCRA): An Australian Government and Movember Foundation Collaboration, Endocyte (a Novartis company), Roy Morgan Research, GenesisCare and the St Vincent’s Clinic Foundation.

ANZUP hosted the 2nd Advanced Prostate Cancer Consensus Conference (APCCC), Asia-Pacific (APAC) virtual Satellite Symposium in October. This highly successful multidisciplinary meeting (held virtually this year) involved 25 key opinion leaders from 14 countries in the Asia Pacific region. This symposium provided a forum to discuss and debate current questions on the clinical management of men with advanced prostate cancer and help ensure the decisions made are relevant and can be implemented in the Asia Pacific region.

Education and mentoring remain an important focus for ANZUP. Our major annual educational event is the Annual Scientific Meeting (ASM). It was to be held in Adelaide in July 2020 but again, due to COVID-19 restrictions, we sadly had to postpone this meeting. However, we were excited to introduce a new model for the ASM, in a two-day hybrid format working with local hubs and an interactive virtual meeting platform. This event was held over the last 2 days of November. With over 300 delegates attending the meeting virtually we welcomed a superb international and national faculty allowing us to continue to engage and discuss the challenges we have faced, lessons we have learned and new ways of delivering the best healthcare to people living with below the belt cancers.

ANZUP continues to receive infrastructure funding from the Australian Government through Cancer Australia. This financial and in-kind support is greatly valued, however we still require independent funding to support each and every new clinical trial. It is critical to develop innovative and sustainable funding to allow us to instigate trials and support funding applications and this is why fundraising remains an important part of our activities.

With the cancellation of the Pedalthons due to COVID we were forced to think outside the box! How could we continue to raise awareness and funds during this difficult time, being mindful of the impact of COVID and community restrictions along with budget limitations? The ANZUP Below the Belt #YourWay campaign was launched. This was an exciting new challenge encouraging the community to get exercising in September and either run, walk or ride as many km’s as you could. Keeping both your mind and body healthy. We were thrilled with the outcome which was met with amazing enthusiasm, raising ~$170,000 for ANZUP’s Below the Belt Research Fund which will be directed to support our members to develop novel research projects that could possibly lead to future ANZUP trials.

We are very grateful to all those people who donated to, and participated in, the inaugural #YourWay Challenge. We would also like to thank all in-kind supporters and the sponsors who helped make this event possible. We plan to add the Below the Belt #YourWay Challenge as a permanent fixture on the ANZUP calendar!

If you are interested in receiving regular updates from us, we welcome you to join “Friends of ANZUP” to help you stay connected with the work we do. It’s free and you can join by clicking on the link https://www.anzup.org.au/friendsofanzup.aspx to receive your free copy of this magazine.

I extend my thanks to the hard work and commitment of so many. The level of support we receive from our membership, our “Friends of ANZUP” and from the wider community, organisations large and small, is nothing short of extraordinary.

To the many thousands of patients who participate in ANZUP trials, THANK YOU. Each and every one of you help us to improve treatment and outcomes for patients and their families affected by these below the belt cancers.

On behalf of the ANZUP management team, I wish you and your families a happy, healthy and safe festive season. Please enjoy this edition of ‘A little below the belt’.

MARGARET MCJANNETT CEO, ANZUP