Research Projects

Home / Research Projects / Brain POP

BRAIN POP

Discovery Theme: Clinical Trials

Brain POP (brain perioperative) is a world-first clinical trial programme delivering more targeted, personalised treatment for patients.

It is a unique program for children, adolescents and adults with primary brain cancers or brain metastases (secondary tumours).

Brain-POP enables doctors to precisely see the effect of a new drug therapy on a patient’s brain cancer for the first time by comparing tumour samples before and after treatment. 

It will refine the approach to treating patients at diagnosis and recurrence, capitalising on new knowledge to improve treatment outcomes and unify diverse approaches and a range of clinical trials into a cohesive program

It will provide hope and ultimately benefit to patients and their families.

Champions

Image of Professor Mark Rosenthal

Professor Mark Rosenthal

Medical Oncologist
Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre & The Royal Melbourne Hospital


Professor Mark Rosenthal trained as a Medical Oncologist in Melbourne, Sydney, and New York. He received a Doctor of Philosophy at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (1992-1996). He was Professor Director of the Department of Medical Oncology and Clinical Haematology at the Royal Melbourne Hospital from 2006-2016; Chair and Chief Medical Officer of Cancer Trials Australia (2006-2016); inaugural Chair of the Cooperative Trials Group for Neuro-Oncology (2007-2017) and was the Clinical Trials Lead for the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre (2016-20).

Professor Rosenthal is currently a Senior Staff Specialist in the Department of Medical Oncology at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and Director of the Parkville Cancer Clinical Trials Unit. He has published over 180 peer-reviewed manuscripts and has been awarded over $40 million in research grants. His major interests are neuro-oncology and clinical trials.

Related research projects: 

Related videos: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Professor Mark Rosenthal
Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre & The Royal Melbourne Hospital

Image of Professor Kate Drummond

Professor Kate Drummond AM

Director of Neurosurgery, The Royal Melbourne Hospital


Professor Kate Drummond, AM, MD, FRACS is Director of Neurosurgery at The Royal Melbourne Hospital and Head of CNS Tumours at the VCCC Parkville Precinct. Her research and clinical interests are in the biology and management of brain tumours, with special interests in advanced surgical techniques such as awake craniotomy, quality of life and blood and imaging biomarkers.

She has published over 190 peer-reviewed papers and many book chapters and has received more than $35 million in research funding. Her h-index is 43. She is Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Clinical Neuroscience and on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Neurosurgery. She has served as Chief Examiner in Neurosurgery, Chair of the Women in Surgery Committee and on the Neurosurgery Surgical Education and Training Board for the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, being awarded the RACS medal for these services. She is the President of the Asian Australasian Society of Neurosurgeons.

She is a strong advocate for and has written and presented widely on diversity in neurosurgery. She is Chair of Pangea Global Health Education, a for-impact organisation specialising in health education in low resource settings. In 2019 she was awarded Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for services to medicine, particularly in neuro-oncology and community health.

Related research projects: 

Related videos: 

 

 

 

Professor Kate Drummond AM
The Royal Melbourne Hospital

Image of Dr Jim Whittle

Dr Jim Whittle

Medical Oncologist, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre
Laboratory Head, WEHI
Co-Head Research Strategy, The Brain Cancer Centre


Jim is a medical oncologist specialising in neuro-oncology at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. He completed his PhD and was awarded the “Professor Lynn Corcoran PhD Prize” for his research understanding the molecular mechanisms responsible for resistance to cell death in breast cancer. This work has provided the foundation for testing novel compounds in early phase clinical trials, together with industry collaboration.

In 2020, Jim commenced working remotely with the Ligon laboratory, Dana Faber Cancer Institute, with a focus on uncovering resistance mechanisms to glioma. Jim is passionate about improving supportive care for patients and carers with brain cancer. Together with Prof Kate Drummond, he co-leads an MRFF funded program to develop an online supportive care platform. 

Dr Whittle & Prof Drummond have recently launched a world-first clinical trial Brain POP, funded through The BCC, which will enable doctors to precisely see the effect of a new drug therapy on a patient’s brain cancer for the first time.

Related research projects: 

Related videos: 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr Jim Whittle
Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre & WEHI

Image of Professor Jordan R. Hansford

Professor Jordan R. Hansford

Oncologist/Neuro-Oncologist WCHN
SAHMRI


Prof. Jordan R. Hansford specialises in the treatment of paediatric brain tumours. He is the lead in paediatric neuro-oncology at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital and lead of the Paediatric Neuro-Oncology at the South Australia Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI). He is cross-appointed at the South Australia ImmunoGenomics Cancer Institute at the University of Adelaide. He leads the medical proton integration team and has collaborative preclinical and clinical projects nationally and internationally, and has published widely in paediatric neuro-oncology with over 75 papers cited >5000 times. He is PI or co-PI on several national and international brain tumour studies including early phase studies. He currently runs the paediatric brain cancer biobank in South Australia.

He has been awarded or co-awarded nearly $20M in funding for pre-clinical or clinical trials.
He is an advisor for the Rare Brain Tumours Consortium based out of the Hospital for Sick Children Toronto and the international DIPG Registry. He is a director of ANZCHOG and is the chair of the Neuro-Oncology group. He has led or contributed to many paediatric brain tumour trials leading to disease specific improvements to clinical care and outcomes in many disease types including the practice changing targeted therapy in LGG presented at ASCO 2022. He was invited to participate in the Australian Minister of Health’s National Roadmap to tackle brain cancer and the development of the Australian Brain Cancer Mission and now sits on their board. Most recently the ANZCHOG team has been focussed on the translation of methylation profiling to the upfront diagnostics of paediatric brain tumours that is now offered nationally as a NATA approved pathology test. This has led to changes in clinical practice across the country.

Related research projects: 

Professor Jordan R. Hansford
SAHMRI

Image of Professor Jayesh Desai

Professor Jayesh Desai

Medical Oncologist, Associate Director Clinical Research, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre


Prof Desai has extensive experience in translational research applied to early drug development, particularly in sarcomas and in colorectal cancer. He heads the Phase I/Early Drug Development program and is Deputy-Director of the PCCTU. He has been Principal Investigator on over 50 clinical trials over the last 10 years including 40 Phase I and first in man trials. These have been both investigator initiated and collaborative trials with pharmaceutical and biotech companies. The research has been across a broad array of agents including kinase inhibitors and novel immuno-oncology agents/combinations. He has authored/co-authored approximately 180 publications in journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, Nature, The Lancet and the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Prof Desai has served in a number of key national and international committees including American Society of Clinical Oncology and European Society of Medical Oncology in Sarcoma and Drug Development. He has been successful in obtaining approximately $50 million in peer-reviewed and direct industry research funding. Professor Desai completed his Medical Oncology training in Melbourne in 2002.

He completed a translational research fellowship in sarcoma at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute / Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA.

Related research projects: 

Professor Jayesh Desai
Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre

Image of Dr Claire Phillips

Dr Claire Phillips

Deputy Director, Radiation Oncology
Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre


Claire Phillips is a Deputy Director of Radiation Oncology at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre Melbourne and a sub-specialist in NeuroOncology including Linac and Gamma Knife radiosurgery. She has a long clinical experience in the multidisciplinary-team management of primary brain cancer and brain metastases. Claire has lead clinical trials in brain cancer and eye tumours, including the TROG 08.02 (Short versus Long course RT for glioblastoma in the elderly) and TROG 16.02 Local HERO study of radiosurgery and/ or neurosurgery alone for HER2+ breast cancer brain metastases. She is an active member of the TROG CNS Working Group and holds a number of leadership positions including Chair of the RANZCR Particle Therapy Working Group.

Related research projects: 

Dr Claire Phillips
Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre