Professor Paul McMurrick has played a key role in lowering the entry age for bowel cancer screening from 50 to 45 for the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program, to address an alarming increase.
Chairman of Le
t’s Beat Bowel Cancer and Head of Cabrini’s Colorectal Cancer Research, Professor Paul McMurrick, has played a key role in lowering the entry age for bowel cancer screening from 50 to 45 for the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program, to address this alarming trend.
In partnership with Monash University, Prof McMurrick’s team is also working towards the discovery of personalised treatments for individual cancer patients by growing organoids (3D tumours) in the laboratory.
“We’ve taken a portion of the tumour from patients… and grown them into mini tumours, which allow the team to quickly determine how effective drugs are likely to be for each individual patient, improving their health outcomes,” explained Prof McMurrick.
The information provided by the organoids determines which treatments are effective and prevent patients from experiencing unnecessary side effects from other treatments. In our team’s recent research, we have discovered a specific protein that may help some tumours resist chemotherapy. By identifying these protein-positive cells in the lab-grown organoids, our research team can better predict which patients might not respond well to standard treatments and adjust their care accordingly.
The organoid research team can grow the tumours in the lab quickly, test a panel of drugs, and give feedback to the oncologist. This can guide treatment decisions for patients before they commence therapy in the hospital.
