Dr Aaron Wong honoured with Emerging Clinical Triallist Award

Dr Aaron Wong has been awarded the Emerging Clinical Triallist Award by the National Cancer Symptom Trials Cooperative Group (Cancer Australia) at the Palliative Care Clinical Studies Collaborative and Cancer Symptom Trials Research Forum.

Dr Wong is based within Professor Jennifer Philip's Palliative Nexus research group at the Collaborative Centre for Genomic Cancer Medicine and St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne. His PhD was supervised by Professor Philip and Professor Sean Grimmond, Director of the Collaborative Centre and leader in cancer genomics.

This award recognises Dr Wong's significant contributions to cancer symptom management and palliative care research.

Dr Wong's award-winning trial, titled "A Pilot Feasibility Study of Establishing a Clinical Opioid Pharmacogenomics Database in Palliative Care (OPPtiC)", has been instrumental in advancing the field of opioid pharmacogenomics.

Dr Wong's research, which earned him a PhD and the Dean's Award for Excellence in Graduate Research from the University of Melbourne in 2024, integrates multiomic approaches to expedite laboratory research translation into clinical practice to personalise cancer pain relief.

The OPPtic study seeks to elucidate the clinical, biological, and genetic factors that influence side effects and efficacy for the opioid drug class in a palliative care population of cancer patients. His work has incorporated multi-omic approaches into cancer pain medicine to expedite laboratory research translation into clinical practice to personalise cancer pain relief.

Work on this trial has advanced Dr Wong’s Early Research Career and expertise in opioid pharmacogenomics and clinical trials, fostered national and international collaborations, and led to eight first-author published manuscripts with two more in progress.

These efforts have culminated in the launch of the GENOS Trial, an Australian national registry trial for biomarker-guided opioid prescribing in cancer pain.

The PaCCSC and CST Research Forum, held at the International Convention Centre in Sydney, brought together leading clinical trialists, researchers, healthcare professionals, and consumers to explore scientific advancements in cancer and palliative care.

Congratulations to Dr Aaron Wong on this well-deserved honour!