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Cancer patients will benefit from a $1.2 million Lotterywest cheque handed to The University of Western Australia today by Deputy Premier and Health Minister Dr Kim Hames.

Winthrop Professor Wendy Erber, Head of UWA's School of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, said the money would buy state-of-the-art equipment to improve cancer diagnosis and determine which patients would gain most from personalised therapies.

UWA Vice-Chancellor, Professor Alan Robson, said the University's medical research in this area was recognised internationally. The Shanghai Jiao Tong Academic Ranking of World Universities placed UWA among the top 51 - 75 universities in the world in the field of Clinical Medicine and Pharmacy.

"This donation will enable our researchers to provide detailed information about cancers in individual patients, translating research into better clinical outcomes for those facing cancer," Professor Robson said.

The new equipment, to be housed in the University's Translational and Cancer Pathology Laboratory, will be used by a team of pathologists and scientists in collaboration with oncologists and haematologists.

"The grant will give WA the opportunity to improve cancer patient care," Professor Erber said. "All the approaches we take in the laboratory have the single aim of improved outcomes."

Professor Erber said new techniques would be developed to improve:

• diagnosis, disease classification and the detection of new cancer biomarkers;
• disease stratification, whereby doctors assess cells, protein structures and chromosomes for biomarkers that predict the likely disease outcome; and
• ways to predict a patient's response to targeted therapies. (Cancer genetics is becoming increasingly important in determining the likelihood of a tumour responding to new "personalised" targeted therapy).

"We will work to use the knowledge gained from scientific discoveries and translate these into clinically applicable diagnostic pathology that can be performed routinely," Professor Erber said.

Professor Erber acknowledged the Cancer Council and PathWest's support for the laboratory.

Media references

Winthrop Professor Wendy Erber (UWA School of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine)  (+61 8)  9346 2499
Michael Sinclair-Jones (UWA Public Affairs)  (+61 8)  6488 3229  /  (+61 4) 00 700 783