North Queensland Centre for Cancer Research
The NQCCR was formed in late 2002, with the assistance of a Queensland Cancer Fund Capacity Enabling Grant, to address the needs of this diverse northern Australian community by reducing cancer incidence and progression, and improving the quality of life for individuals affected by cancer, through excellence in research. The NQCCR consists of a very cohesive multidisciplinary group of cancer researchers who collaborate extensively and pool their resources towards achieving this mission.
The Skin Cancer Group addresses a health problem in a region with the highest skin cancer rate in the world. Contributions of international importance included the first reports of a significant relationship between chronic sun exposure during childhood and naevus frequency, and earlier naevi development in Caucasian children raised in the tropics. Work on the prognostic classification of cutaneous melanoma has impacted very significantly upon the American Joint Committee on Cancer Melanoma Staging. Strong collaborations exist with QIMR, and German and USA collaborators, with important molecular epidemiological studies, facilitated by the NQCCR’s molecular biology capacity.
A prospective colorectal cancer database with standardized clinical, operative, histopathology, adjuvant therapy and follow-up data collection protocol has been established with linkage to a catalogued cancer tissue bank. A North Queensland Colorectal Cancer Research Network Registry is being set-up with grant funding to expand the Cancer Registry into more rural/remote areas of northern Queensland and ensure inclusion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations. The registry is being used to launch epidemiological studies into colorectal cancer in the region and explore patient responses to a cancer diagnosis.
The centre is currently capitalising on the capacity to link the banked cancer tissue with epidemiological/clinical data from the Skin Cancer or Colorectal Cancer groups. This has already resulted in important findings with a recent review showing a much higher proportion of early colorectal cancers than reported in other series. This has led to the design of molecular studies to help explain the earlier diagnosis of the disease
Contact: YikHong.Ho@jcu.edu.au
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Staff Member |
Research Interest |
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epidemiology and prevention of melanoma and non-melanocytic skin cancers |
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Dr Murray Davies |
platinum anticancer drug design; rates and mechanism of DNA binding of anticancer drugs |
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epidemiology and prevention of melanoma and non-melanocytic skin cancers |
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stereochemistry in metallosupramolecular assesmblies: metal complexes as a sequence-and structure-selective binding agents for DNA |
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Professor Lee Kennedy |
Molecular role of free fatty acids in colorectal cancer |
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Professor Alfred Lam |
molecular pathology of endocrine & gastrointestinal cancer |
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Design of drugs targeting leukaemia and related cancers |
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epidemiology of skin and colorectal cancer in relation to diet |
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colorectal cancer surgery - sphincter preservation for low rectal cancer & minimising cancer recurrences |