Diamantina Comprehensive Cancer Centre

EXECUTIVE TEAM MEMBERS

Diamantina Comprehensive Cancer Centre2

MelanomaProfessor Mark SmithersMBBS FRACS FRCS (Eng)

Professor Mark Smithers is in the Discipline of Surgery at The University of Queensland, Director, Upper Gastro-intestinal and Soft Tissue Unit and Senior Surgeon, Melanoma Clinic, Princess Alexandra Hospital.

Professor Smithers is Chairman of the Queensland Melanoma Project and Medical Director of Melanoma Patients Australia. His research interests include the epidemiology of melanoma in Queensland, Phase I-III trials in the surgical and medical management of patients with primary cutaneous melanoma and stage III and IV melanoma. These include local investigator driven studies as well as collaboration in national and international trials.

Epithelial Skin MalignanciesProfessor Peter SoyerMD FACD

Professor Soyer is an academic dermatologist with over 30 years of experience in the field. He was appointed as the inaugural Chair in Dermatology by The University of Queensland in 2007 and as Director of the Princess Alexandra Hospital (PAH) Dermatology Department in 2008. He has a strong focus on translational skin cancer research.

Professor Soyer is internationally recognised in the field of dermatology with particular expertise in dermatopathology, dermatooncology and is recognised as a world leader in dermoscopy and clinico-pathologic correlation of melanocytic proliferations. In recent years his scientific activities have broadened to include teledermatology, teledermatopathology and teledermoscopy and he is CIE on a recently awarded NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence in Telehealth.

Theme LeaderAssociate Professor Euan WalpoleMBBS (Hons) FRACP

Executive Team Members

Stream Leaders

Dr Euan Walpole is a medical oncologist and received his M.B.B.S (Hons) from The University of Queensland in 1980. After four years at the Princess Alexandra Hospital Brisbane, Dr Walpole was a registrar in Haematology and Medical Oncology at the Peter McCallum Cancer Institute Melbourne before returning to the Princess Alexandra Hospital as a Medical Oncologist. He also undertook a visiting Fellowship in Oncology at the Montefiore Medical Centre/ Albert Einstein Cancer Center, New York.

Dr Walpole currently holds the position of Medical Director

– Cancer Services for the Princess Alexandra Hospital and Metro South Health Service. He is also Associate Professor, Honorary Associate of the NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre, University of Sydney.

Noted appointments include Chairmanships of the Queensland Cancer Fund Medical and Scientific Advisory Committee, Medical Oncology Group of Australia, Specialist Advisory Committee in Medical Oncology of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and membership of Specialties Board.

Diamantina Comprehensive Cancer Centre

3Executive Team Members

Haematologic MalignanciesProfessor Andrew Perkins MB BS (Hons) PhD FRACP FCRPA

Professor Perkins is a clinician scientist with an international reputation in genomics and developmental genetics underpinning blood diseases. Dr Perkins is a senior staff specialist in Clinical Haematology at PAH and in Haematology Pathology at Mater Health Services. He trained at leading public hospitals in Australia and undertook post-graduate training at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute and Harvard University. He is Program Leader in Blood and Bone Diseases (jointly with CI-Associate Professor Jean-Pierre Levesque) at Mater Research Institute/TRI, and heads the Cancer Genomics group within that program.

Lung Related CancersProfessor Ken O’ByrneMD

Dr Kenneth O’Byrne took up the positions of Eminent Consultant Medical Oncology position at the Princess Alexandra Hospital and Professor of Health Sciences at QUT in 2013. He is also leader of the PAH Phase 1 Clinical Trials Unit. He was clinical director of the HOPE directorate at St James’s Hospital and a clinical Professor at Trinity College, Dublin.

Dr O’Byrne has a particular interest in the management of thoracic malignancies. His research focuses on the identification of novel biomarkers and novel targeted therapy in lung cancer and mesothelioma. He has published over 250 manuscripts in peer reviewed books and journals and has been involved in over 100 clinical trials.

Prostate CancerProfessor Colleen NelsonBSc (Hons) PhD

Professor Nelson is the founding Executive Director of the Australian Prostate Cancer Research Centre – Queensland, the Chair of Prostate Cancer Research at Queensland University of Technology, and a member of the Translational Research Institute caucus.

Professor Nelson is also the founder and Director of the Australian-Canadian Prostate Cancer Research Alliance, an initiative developed to coordinate national and international network interactions of more than 200 prostate cancer scientists and clinicians in Australia and Canada. The Alliance facilitates access to state-of-the-art infrastructure and clinical trials to assist in the translation of a wide range of discoveries in both countries.

Upper Gastro-intestinal CancerAssociate Professor Andrew BarbourMBBS (Hons) PhD FRACS FACS

Associate Professor Andrew Barbour is a Surgical Oncologist at the Princess Alexandra Hospital. He is a translational researcher at The University of Queensland School of Medicine, based at the Princess Alexandra Hospital where his research has focused on using genomic, mRNA expression and next generation sequencing data to classify oesophageal adenocarinoma (OAC) and identify biomarkers of outcome of OAC and melanoma. In 2013 he was awarded a James IV Travelling Fellow, funded by the NHMRC. He is the Principal Investigator for multicentre phase II trials in oesophageal and pancreatic cancer, funded by the NHMRC.

Gynaecological CancerDr Jim CowardBSc (Hons) MBBS MRCP (UK) FRACP PhD

Dr Jim Coward is a medical oncology specialist in gynaecological malignancies at the Mater Adult Hospital and leader of the Inflammation & Cancer Therapeutics Group at the Mater Research Institute. He undertook specialist training at the Royal Marsden Hospital, London and was awarded a PhD from the Barts Cancer Institute, London in 2010. The remit of his research revolves around efficient translation of novel bench-side discoveries in cancer-related inflammation into combinatorial clinical trials.

Head and Neck CancerAssociate Professor Ben PanizzaMBBS MBA FRACS MAICD

Associate Professor Panizza is the Chairman of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery at the Princess Alexandra and Logan Hospitals, responsible for the Departments clinical delivery, teaching and research. He is the founder and current Co-Director of the Queensland Skull Base Unit and the immediate past President of the Australian and New Zealand Head and Neck Cancer Society. He is actively involved in Head and Neck cancer surgery with a special interest in skull base malignancy. He has recently been appointed as Director of the Queensland Head and Neck Cancer Centre which links the Head and Neck Cancer Services at PAH to related research at TRI and QIMR-Berghofer. He is a regular contributor to the scientific literature and sits on the Editorial board of a number of ENT and Head and Neck Journals.

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©Diamantina Health Partners January 2014

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