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Cancer patients to benefit from new partnership

Monday, May 25, 2020 cancer servicestelehealth
Cancer patients to benefit from new partnership The partnership will give central Victorians greater access to cancer specialists and clinical trials.
Bendigo Health joins forces with the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre.

Central Victorian cancer patients will have greater access to pioneering treatments and clinical trials through a new partnership with Bendigo Health and the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre (VCCC)*.

Bendigo Health will be an Affiliate Partner of the VCCC, which will help more local patients participate in clinical trials, including early phase and personalised oncology trials and better access for patients in the Bendigo region to leading specialists at Melbourne’s cancer hospitals, among others.

Bendigo Health cancer research manager Narelle McPhee said the partnership would benefit regional communities.

“When you start working with the VCCC, you get to work with a new network of people, which opens up new opportunities and new learnings for our staff which in turn benefits our patients,” she said.

Currently, less than a third (27 per cent) of patients recruited to a clinical trial live in regional or rural Victoria.

“The partnership brings the issues of regional and rural cancer patients to those discussions around clinical trial availability, resources and education,” she said.

The VCCC Teletrials Program enables clinical trials to be conducted in regional areas using digital platforms, such as telehealth, and collaborative partnerships to establish trial treatment delivery.

Bendigo Health is currently participating in a teletrial called Target-TP, which aims to prevent clotting in lung and gastric cancer patients who are about to start chemotherapy.

Clinical trial recruitment rates at Bendigo Health have increased by 200 per cent over the past three years, which Ms McPhee said was in part due to the willingness of participants.

“I’m so appreciative and always in awe that people can be going through such a difficult time of cancer and they’re willing to participate in something that may not benefit them but they can see it could benefit the next patient.”

*The Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre (VCCC) is an alliance of 10 leading research, academic and clinical institutions, working together to accelerate and amplify leading-edge cancer research, knowledge and expertise to benefit the Victorian community