Progress is being made and your support has significantly impacted the research landscape for GI cancer here in Australia.
You need look no further than the new trials that are generated from the Innovation Grant. Since 2015, over $1.2million in Innovation Grants have been awarded to new research, thanks to the incredible dedication of you and our GI cancer community.
Just ask Professor John Mariadason, who was the first recipient of the Innovation Grant in 2015.
John, along with Professor Niall Tebbutt and Doctor David Lau were studying advanced stage gastric cancer and its response to the drug Regorafenib, which is typically used to treat colorectal cancer. Having worked closely with Niall, and Professor Nick Pavlakis, John knew how significant this community funded grant was.
“It was a fabulous opportunity and without the support of the community and fundraising, there’s no way we could have done this. What the Innovation Grant did was help us to get
started and accumulate the initial data needed to apply for a larger NHMRC project grant. Without the Innovation Grant we would not have been able to do the initial research,” John said.
Now that the results of the research have been published as a translational substudy for the INTEGRATE trial, which is currently our largest clinical study, John says the Innovation Grant was ‘invaluable’ to his research.
“I can’t emphasise enough how much of a kickstart this gave us, and enabled us to leverage this work to get a larger grant. The good thing is the GI Cancer Institute recognised that even though the work was preliminary, they supported and encouraged new ideas and were willing to take a chance on this project.”
“My sincere thanks and great appreciation to the community. Without your support this study would not have been possible. The value of what the community have contributed can potentially lead to a new way of treating these cancers.”