Translating research discoveries into clinical practice
Professor Philip Hogg, Director of the UNSW Cancer Research Centre, has received many accolades in his distinguished research career – now including the 2009 Premier's Award for Outstanding Cancer Researcher – but the achievement he is most proud of is the clinical development of his anti-cancer compounds.
by Jen Mansell
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Professor Philip Hogg, Director of the UNSW Cancer Research Centre
“Taking the drugs from the bench to testing in cancer patients is a very difficult process and I am thrilled we have achieved this,” he says.
Professor Hogg's team has described a novel way in which protein action is controlled. Application of this basic research has now led to the development of new anti-cancer drugs and a new cancer diagnostic.
“My team has developed a novel class of anti-mitochondrial cancer drugs and a tumour cell death imaging agent,” explains Professor Hogg. “The lead cancer drug is currently being trialled in cancer patients in the UK. Fourteen patients have been treated so far and the initial results are promising. The imaging agent non-invasively detects dying and dead tumour cells. The agent could be used, for instance, to assess the efficacy of cancer therapy.”
Bringing this research back to NSW is very important to Professor Hogg, something he wouldn't have been able to do without local support. “The Cancer Institute NSW has enabled us to test our second generation anti-cancer drug in clinical trials in NSW. Up until now we have had to go overseas (UK and USA) to trial our drugs. We have high hopes for this new compound – it is much more effective than the first compound and is better tolerated.”
Ongoing commitment to cancer research is needed to continue to reduce cancer death rates over the next 20 years. Some of this investment will provide immediate discoveries, like Professor Hogg's, that benefit patients this year or the next. However, some of the investment will support research with longer term returns that improve cancer results.
The outcomes from the investment in cancer research are becoming increasingly obvious. NSW has documented more leverage of cancer research contributions from other funders than other medical research disciplines in NSW. Cancer publications generated from NSW are greater than other states; NSW clinical trails participation has increased to nearly six per cent of incident cancer cases; and the number of talented researchers in cancer, in NSW, has increased by more than 50 per cent since 2004.
I want to see new treatments for cancer being discovered and developed in NSW that will benefit all cancer sufferers.
This impact provides a base for the Cancer Institute NSW vision to better control and cure cancer. It offers the best hope to allow those of us facing cancer now and in the future to be optimistic about our chances of surviving cancer.
Like most people in the field, contributing to breakthrough developments in cancer research also has personal meaning for Professor Hogg.
“Some of my close relatives have died from cancer. My job gives me the opportunity to do something significant in the fight against this disease.”