ACU's Dr Nicola Straiton will be involved in the National Breast Cancer Foundation's first Collaborative Research Accelerator Grant, a $25 million investment over five years, to tackle breast cancer.
Dr Straiton, senior research fellow at the Nursing Research Institute – a collaboration between St Vincent's Health Network Sydney, St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne, and ACU – will be part of the AllClear investigator team.
She will focus on accelerating translation of evidence into clinical practice and identifying opportunities to advance equitable healthcare.
"Being part of the AllClear investigator team is an extraordinary opportunity to make sure that world-class research is effectively translated into tangible improvements in patient care," Dr Straiton said.
"Our goal is not only to develop innovative approaches to breast cancer treatment, but also to guarantee these advances are accessible and equitable for every patient who needs them."
The CRA is one of the largest grants available in Australia and the single largest research investment the National Breast Cancer Foundation has made in its 30-year history.
The project is led by Associate Professor Christine Chaffer at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research.
It will focus on stopping breast cancer recurrence to halve deaths from breast cancer and unite the best and brightest globally to work towards the National Breast Cancer Foundation's vision of zero deaths from breast cancer.
The AllClear team involves about 60 researchers from seven leading research institutes and organisations, including Breast Cancer Trials, the University of Sydney, the University of Newcastle, Yale, Washington University and 11 hospitals in New South Wales.
AllClear researchers will focus on breast cancer that may have already spread to the bone at the time of diagnosis to:
- Identify the seeds of relapse early
- Develop tools to predict who is most at risk of relapse
- Develop targeted therapies to eliminate these seeds of relapse before they reawaken and cause metastatic breast cancer.
Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among women in Australia and the second most commonly diagnosed cancer overall.
The death rate has reduced by over 40 per cent in the past 30 years but around 3300 Australians die from breast cancer each year.
Of the 21,000 people diagnosed with breast cancer annually, many may have breast cancer cells that have spread and are dormant (generally in their bones) at diagnosis.
Around 15 per cent will experience a relapse (also known as a recurrence) within 10 years, however recurrence can happen decades later.
