State’s leading cancer researchers honoured
The state’s top honour for cancer research was tonight awarded to Professor John Forbes AM, a pioneer in breast cancer research.
Professor Forbes, from the Newcastle-based Australian and New Zealand Breast Cancer Trials Group, received the 2015 Premier’s Award for Outstanding Cancer Research.
“Breast cancer is the most common cancer among NSW women, with one in eight developing the disease in their lifetime,” said Mrs Skinner, who presented the awards on behalf of Premier Mike Baird.
“Over four decades, Professor Forbes’s discoveries – including pioneering the use of anti-oestrogen therapy for early breast cancer – have improved the quality of many lives, in Australia and the world over.”
The Sydney Children’s Hospital Network received two awards – the Excellence in Translational Cancer Research Award for a project harnessing gene therapy for childhood brain cancer and the ”˜Big Data, Big Impact’ grant for a project which is investigating personalised treatment through interpretation of complex biomedical data.
The Garvan Institute was honoured with three awards – Professor Susan Clarke received the Professor Rob Sutherland AO ”˜Make a Difference’ Award for decades of achievement in cancer DNA biology and creation of DNA-based tests for early cancer prevention; Dr Angela Chou was named ”˜Rising Star’ PhD Student of the Year for her investigations in novel personalised treatment for pancreatic cancer; and a Garvan-led study which mapped pancreatic cancer genomes for the first time won the Wildfire Award for a highly-cited publication.
The 2015 Outstanding Cancer Research Fellow was awarded to Associate Professor Sallie-Anne Pearson, from Sydney University, for her project to evaluate the use and impact of cancer medicines in routine clinical care.
Mr Baird said: “Tonight the state honours some of its most brilliant minds, those who work away from the public gaze, for years and decades, to unlock the secrets of cancer. We thank them for their skill and tenacity as they work to bring relief and hope to those living with this insidious disease.”
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