World Pancreatic Cancer Day: increasing awareness and inspiring action ISABELLE DUBACH This World Pancreatic Cancer Day, we’re highlighting some of the many UNSW Sydney researchers working to improve patient outcomes. Pancreatic cancer is an insidious disease – it is often diagnosed at an advanced stage, with about 90% of patients dying within five years of diagnosis. New projections suggest pancreatic cancer will be the second leading cause of cancer mortality by 2025. This World Pancreatic Cancer Day, we are celebrating some of the many UNSW researchers who are dedicated to changing those statistics. Cancers with poor outcomes – like pancreatic cancer – are a key focus area in UNSW Medicine’s cancer theme.
PHOEBE PHILLIPS
Associate Professor Phillips is the Head of the Pancreatic Cancer Translational Research Group and Deputy Director of the Adult Cancer Program at the Lowy Cancer Research Centre at UNSW Medicine. This year, A/Prof Phillips was a key driver in establishing the Pancreatic Cancer Research Hub, which aims to double the survival of patients with pancreatic cancer by 2030. She says World Pancreatic Cancer Day is a powerful advocacy event to increase community and government awareness of pancreatic cancer. “It is also a time to reflect on the progress we have made in understanding this terrible disease and focus on the next steps to overcome current clinical challenges to ensure our research efforts bridge the gap and, as in other cancers, improve the outcomes for our patients with pancreatic cancer. “I know that we are on the brink of overturning the unacceptable statistics. Uniting researchers with the community – who, unlike in other cancers, don’t often get to be a strong voice advocating for themselves – and Government will ensure Australian researchers continue to make positive change for pancreatic cancer patients globally.” A/Prof Phillip’s group has developed a novel cutting-edge way to keep pieces of human pancreatic tumours alive in the laboratory for two weeks after surgical resection. “Our capacity to grow human tumour tissue in the laboratory provides a valuable new clinical tool to test how a patients tumour responds to different chemotherapies and has the potential to immediately inform patient treatment options. Our unique tumour model is superior to other models because it is human in origin and it contains the complex tumour environment present in patients.” In 2016 A/Prof Phillips had a major breakthrough, successfully developing a novel nanomedicine – a tiny drug delivery vehicle – consisting of a state-of-the-art nanoparticle that can package gene therapy to inhibit any tumourpromoting gene in pancreatic cancer. With the generous support from the Brian O’Neill Pancreatic Cancer Fundraising Dinner – held last night – the team will be able to perform essential preclinical studies to test the therapeutic potential of their nano-gene therapy in combination with a clinically approved drug. They also plan on using their expertise to improve the bioavailability of the clinically approved drugs using a nanomedicine approach.
46 THE LAST POST – 2020 SUMMER EDITION
Top row: Ying Zhu; Minoti Apte. Bottom row: Phoebe Phillips, Angelica Merlot.
MINOTI APTE
Professor Minoti Apte was the first in the world to isolate and characterise pancreatic stellate cells, a cell type that is now known to play a major role in the progression of both chronic pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer. Coming up with ways to target these cells to prevent them from doing harm is now a major focus of her team’s research. The group has now shown that interrupting the crosstalk between cancer cells and surrounding cells in the microenvironment by targeting a certain signalling pathway reduces tumour growth and eliminates metastasis in early as well as advanced pre-clinical models of pancreatic cancer. “We have also shown that targeting this pathway reduces the risk of recurrence and progression after surgical resection of pancreatic cancer in a mouse model, and are currently working on possible pathways to take our laboratory findings to the clinic,” Professor Apte says. “To me, World Pancreatic Cancer Day is a great opportunity to raise awareness in the community about this deadly cancer, but it is also a day to admire the courage and resilience of patients and their carers. These are the people that spur us researchers on to continue working hard to develop new therapeutic approaches to improve outcomes.” Last year, Professor Apte received the Gastroenterological Society of Australia (GESA) Distinguished Researcher Prize 2018. In 2014 she was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM), after being named the NSW Woman of the Year in 2015. She was also the 2016 recipient of the Professor Rob Sutherland AO Make a Difference Award at the NSW Premier’s Awards for Outstanding Cancer Research – an award that recognises highly successful research that is actively changing cancer treatment and improving patient survival.
ANGELICA MERLOT
Dr Angelica Merlot, who is based at the Children’s Cancer Institute, focuses her research on developing new anticancer drugs that target drug resistance and suppress cancer spread. This year, the cancer researcher has won the 2019 NSW Young Woman of the Year award for her achievements and research into treatments for pancreatic and brain cancer. She also won a 2019 Young Tall Poppy Science Award and the 2019 NSW Early Career Researcher of the Year (Biological Sciences) at the NSW Premier’s Prizes for Science & Engineering.
