PC4 Cancer Symposium 2017 "Establishing Partnerships, Creating Opportunities"

10th  May 2017
Rendezvous Hotel, Melbourne

The Primary Care Collaborative Cancer Clinical Trials Group (PC4) directed by Prof Jon Emery recently held its fourth Scientific Symposium in Melbourne at the Rendezvous hotel on the 10th May. The theme was “Establishing Partnerships, Creating Opportunities”, which highlighted PC4’s main goals of fostering research collaboration and developing new primary care in cancer research.

The day opened with plenary speaker Professor Eva Grunfeld, Director of the Knowledge Translation Research Network at the University of Toronto, Canada. Prof Grunfeld spoke about the CanIMPACT trial, a Canadian program to improve integration between primary care and cancer care.  The project covered the entire continuum of the cancer journey and has a mixed methods approach to improve integration.

Four themes were presented during the Symposium: prevention and diagnosis, survivorship, palliative care and challenges of designing successful survivorship trials. As the input and vision of consumers is central to PC4’s values, each session started with a consumer perspective relating to the theme.  Our symposium was a fantastic opportunity that showcased some of the success and multidisciplinary collaborations we have had over the past several years. Additionally the day featured research by staff from the Department of General Practice and MDRP students:

  • ‘ProCare’ –  This trial of shared care between hospitals and primary care for men with prostate cancer is now being implemented in 3 Victorian hospitals - Jon Emery
  • ‘CRISP’ –  A risk prediction screening tool for colorectal cancer -Jennifer Walker
  • Do symptoms, tests and time to referral differ for rural compared to urban colorectal cancer patients in primary car? – Rebecca Bergin
  • ‘BRISK-Q’ – Presented by MDRP student Jesse Minshall about communicating the benefits and harms of using tamoxifen and raloxifene to reduce the risk of breast cancer

Jesse also won our Best Poster award. The most outstanding presentation was won by Katherine Lane from the Cancer Council of Victoria on the project ‘Calls to a cancer helpline around palliative care, death and dying: what are they about and what role do GPs play in these discussions’. The day was a great success and we want to especially thank Sophie Chima for all her hard work.

PC4 Cancer Symposium 1

PC4 Cancer Symposium 2

PC4 Cancer Symposium 4

PC4 Cancer Symposium 3