The Allan Labor Government is supporting Victorian cancer researchers with $8.8 million in funding to support new discoveries for cancers with low survival rates including ovarian and brain cancer.
Minister for Health Mary-Anne Thomas today announced 13 fellowships would be awarded through the Victorian Cancer Agency, which provides essential workforce funding to cancer researchers.
Announced on World Cancer Day, this funding will include a new Palliative Care Cancer Research Grant to support three projects aimed at improving the palliative care experience for Victorians with cancer.
In alignment with this year's theme, Closing the Care Gap, one regional project will be dedicated specifically to improving palliative care in rural Victoria.
Six world-leading research institutions in Melbourne will undertake these projects which will support the Victorian Cancer Plan 2020-2024, which aims to improve cancer survival rates and achieve equitable health outcomes for those with cancer.
The funds will also support two new fellowships in partnership with cancer organisations to strengthen research in low-survival cancers.
Dr Lucy Gately at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research received the Early Career Research Fellowship - awarded in partnership with Carrie's Beanies 4 Brain Cancer.
Dr Gately will use the funding to research treatment options for the most aggressive type of brain cancer which is resistant to traditional treatments.
While Dr Kathleen Pishas from the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre was awarded the Mid-Career Research Fellowship, awarded in partnership with Ovarian Cancer Australia.
Dr Pishas will research low surviving ovarian cancers and ultimately seek to improve survival rates of women diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
The Labor Government is also delivering a nation-leading $153 million women's health transformation to improve women's health outcomes, reduce gender health disparities, enhance research and strengthen the safety and quality of care.
To view this year's grant recipients, visit victoriancanceragency.vic.gov.au.
As stated by Minister for Health Mary-Anne Thomas
"We're backing Victoria's researchers because we know their work could lead to the next big breakthrough in cancer treatment and care."
"Victoria is a world leader in cancer research and this funding supports new research into how we can best care and treat people who have cancer - with the important goal of increasing cancer survival rates."
