Uro-oncology Research

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Uro-oncology Research - Research at Peter Mac

The Uro-Oncology Service aims to provide patients of Victoria with the best multidisciplinary care in an academic setting, conducting clinical and technical research directed at improving patient outcomes.

Research Focus

Multidisciplinary care. Nursing interventions and supportive care Image guided and adaptive radiotherapy. Testicular cancer.

Research Overview

The Uro Oncology Service is a tertiary multidisciplinary service treating the whole range of urological malignancies. Our service provides comprehensive care, ranging from diagnosis, management and treatment of prostate, bladder, kidney, testicular and rarer urological malignancies. The Uro-oncology Service continues to have strong clinical research particularly in prostate cancer. There is an increase in technical research in image guided and adaptive radiotherapy for urological malignancies such a prostate cancer and bladder cancer. Supportive care and psychological research is increasing with links to supportive care and psychiatry. Technical surgical innovations with increasing use of laparoscopic surgery. Various research studies and clinical trials are active, predominantly in the areas of prostate, bladder and renal tumours.

Clinical Trials & Research Projects

Nurse Led Care of Prostate Cancer Patients In a series of ethics approved evaluations there has been development of nurse led care for patients receiving prostate cancer radiotherapy. Mary Leahy our nurse co-ordinator completed a study of nurse led care of Prostate Cancer patients while undergoing radiation therapy. She presented this at the Urological Nurses Association Annual Meeting in Hong Kong winning the prize for best study. This study has been followed by a study evaluating nurse led care in patients who have completed radiation treatment and undergoing follow up. The ethics approved evaluation of nurse led phone follow up of patients treated curatively for low and intermediate risk prostate cancers is completing accrual. The study is comparing standard medical consultation follow up with an innovative nurse led phone follow up program. The nurse led phone follow up clinic, while staffed by senior nursing staff works in close collaboration with hospital medical staff as well as the patient’s general practitioner. If found to be effective, the nurse led follow up clinic has significant potential benefits in terms of patient connivance and reduction of costs to hospital system. Examples of other projects underway:

A phase III trial comparing adjuvant versus salvage radiotherapy for high risk patients post radical prostatectomy [Prof G Duchesne] Value of androgen deprivation and bisphosphonate therapy in patients treated by radiotherapy for localised prostate cancer (Prof G Duchesne] A Victorian wide web based electronic learning (eLearning) program for Image Guided Radiotherapy [Dr Farshad Foroudi] A Study of Online Adaptive Radiation Therapy for Prostate Cancer [Dr Farshad Faroudi] Accelerated first line chemotherapy for advanced germ cell tumours (Assoc Professor Guty Toner]