Cancer in Primary Care
Research Overview
The Primary Cancer Research Group was established at the University of Melbourne in 2013 and has become the biggest primary care cancer research team in the world. The team has accrued over $45,000,000 of funding and published over 150 publications in the last five years. The research group has steadily grown and currently includes over 30 core team members working in three distinct areas:
- Data Connect – linking primary care data to hospital and clinical cancer registries to study the patterns of care and impacts on patient outcomes, as part of a Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre (VCCC) Alliance research program.
- Primary care trial infrastructure and capacity building – the Primary Care Collaborative Cancer Clinical Trials Group (PC4) and PARTNER national trial networks.
- Clinical trials – we are currently running nine studies at varying stages of completion in general practice testing novel interventions covering cancer prevention, risk-based screening, pharmacogenomics, and early cancer diagnosis in primary care. We are also collaborating with other cancer survivorship trials through PC4.
The evolution and growth of the team reflects the success in obtaining competitive research funding through effective national and international collaboration, and development of effective teams to execute research.
At a local level, the Primary Care Cancer Research Group has built strong collaborations with researchers from the School of Population and Global Health such as Prof Mark Jenkins, the School of Medicine (Prof Finlay Macrae, Prof Ingrid Winship), and the Department of General Practice and Primary Care (Prof Dougie Boyle, Prof Lena Sanci, A/Prof Patty Chondros). These collaborations have been critical to build programs on cancer genomics and risk-based prevention, creation of critical data infrastructure for data linkage and trials, and development of decision support tools.
Nationally, we work closely with research teams at the University of Western Australia, University Technology Sydney, University of Queensland, University of Sydney, Flinders University, and others. Many of these collaborations have been built through the successful engagement and processes established by PC4. Similarly, the PARTNER program seeks to connect rural Australians to clinical trials through their local general practice, as well as identify support trials that are pertinent to the needs of rural Australians (see impact).
Internationally, we have a long-standing collaboration with researchers at the University of Cambridge as part of our program on cancer risk assessment and early detection. This led to our group being the Australian lead on the £5 million Cancer Research UK Cantest program, creating opportunities for our team to attend international research schools on early cancer diagnosis and develop collaborations with groups in the UK (Cambridge, UCL, Exeter, Oxford, QMUL), the US and Denmark. Our group has long-standing ties with the Cancer in Primary Care (Ca-PRI) network and its annual conference that presents groundbreaking research in the sphere of cancer in primary care. In 2024, our group hosted the Ca-PRI conference in Melbourne, highlighting our commitment to driving innovation and improving cancer outcomes in primary care. Jon Emery and PC4 were approached to help establish primary care cancer networks in SE Asia, led through a collaboration at NUS in Singapore. The SPRINT (Singapore) and Asia Pacific Primary Care Cancer Research Group have been established and have led to collaborations on several Australian and Asian grants involving early and mid-career researchers. The cancer in primary care team has a history of collaboration with A/Prof Jo-Anne Manski-Nankervis based at NTU in Singapore. This is supported through the Primary Care Collaborative Cancer Clinical Trials Group (PC4) of which Prof Jon Emery is Director.
Funding
Our research is funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), Cancer Australia, Cancer Council Victoria, Department of Health Victoria, Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF),Victorian Cancer Agency, and the VCCC Alliance.
Two members of the team have been the recipients of highly competitive Victorian Cancer Agency (VCA) fellowship grants. In 2023, Dr. Sibel Saya was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship grant. The study aims to evaluate the use of a DNA risk test (polygenic risk score) to predict individual cancer risk and tailor cancer screening recommendations. The project will explore implementing a risk-stratified screening program for melanoma, breast, bowel, and prostate cancers in Australia, involving stakeholders from policy, screening, and community sectors, and determining the best approach for offering the DNA test through general practice. In 2022, Dr. Javiera Martinez-Gutierrez was awarded a Mid-Career Research Fellowship by the VCA focusing on a clinical decision support tool to identify patients with unexpected weight loss at risk of undiagnosed cancer, to be implemented in primary care.

Dr Alex Lee
Honorary Fellow

Dr Brent Venning
Academic Registrar
PC4 - The Primary Care Collaborative Cancer Clinical Trials Group
PC4 is funded by Cancer Australia to support the development of high-quality cancer research in primary care. Our Group provides an infrastructure to foster collaboration between researchers, health care practitioners, policy makers and consumers. We provide access to expert advice and resources through our Support Services, and build research capacity with our Training Awards, Workshops and Mentoring Programs. Further information about becoming a member of PC4 and learning more about ways to support your research is provided on the trial group’s website.
Data Connect
Data Connect is the result of an initial collaboration between the VCCC Alliance, the University of Melbourne, hospitals (VCCC Alliance member and non-member) and BioGrid Australia to link primary care and hospital data. Linked data enables researchers to examine cancer across the patient’s whole journey – from pre-diagnosis to diagnosis and treatment, to post-treatment including survivorship and palliative care. Data Connect is the first and only example of using linked data, including data from primary care, for cancer research in Australia.
This project has enabled a linked data system with research capability to analyse cancer patient data at the three key points where the primary care and hospital systems intersect across the cancer journey. Data Connect is informing improved cancer diagnosis and cancer care.
We have demonstrated the research impact of linking datasets to study patterns of care and develop diagnostic risk prediction algorithms, some of which are being implemented into general practice through the Future Health Today decision support platform.
Our recent success in linking primary care data through the Centre for Victorian Data Linkage (CVDL) also represents a significant opportunity to expand cancer research. This linkage to all Victorian hospital data sets, the Victorian Cancer Registry, National Death Index, postcode and Australian Bureau of Statistics data provides much larger linkage in terms of data completeness and size of linked cancer cohorts. In partnership with the Victorian Optimal Care Summits, the Data Connect team is using this data to inform oesophagogastric, endometrial and colorectal cancer diagnostic pathways and for the Victorian Integrated Cancer Service Optimal Care Summits in 2024 and 2025.
Our research has had national impact through collaboration with inter-state and international project partners using linked data. This includes analyses on skin checks and outcomes applied to modelling studies on skin cancer screening in collaboration with the Daffodil Centre in NSW. Our work in collaboration with QIMR/University of Queensland was part of a successful tender to Cancer Australia and is mapping diagnostic pathways and developing diagnostic decision support tools for pancreatic cancer.
The Data Connect website includes an infographic detailing the data that is available and how it is being used.
PARTNER
The PARTNER network is a national rural practice-based research network (PBRN) that connects regional, remote and rural Australians to new clinical trials and practiced based research, through their local GP. PARTNER creates an environment of research-ready GP practices that improves the efficiency and quality of trials conducted in primary care. The network aims to improve general practice skills and capacity to develop and conduct rural practice-based research.
To assist with this, PARTNER offers two technology solutions that support identification of eligible patients and for the contribute to national database that has the potential to support trial outcome data, drive relevant research questions and support disease surveillance. For more information, please see: https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/bringing-clinical-trials-to-regional-patients
Our Collaborators
Prof Jon Emery and his team have long-standing collaborations with researchers around the world in primary care, cancer, psychiatry, genomics, and linked data. These include a program of work with Prof Fiona Walter now at Queen Mary University of London (Wolfson Institute of Population Health) and formerly at the Department of Public Health and Primary Care, University of Cambridge, Dr Chad Bousman at the University of Calgary on the PRESIDE trial, and Dr Juliet Usher-Smith at Cambridge on the CanRisk program. Additionally, The CanTest program, co-led by Prof Fiona Walter and Prof Willie Hamilton encompassed 42 collaborators from 11 institutions around the world with a focus on early cancer detection in primary care. Current studies within this collaboration include SCRIPT, CRISP, IC3, CanRisk and the Melatools programme.
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Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre Alliance
Health and Biomedical Informatics Centre, University of Melbourne
Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of Melbourne
University of Western Australia, Division of General Practice
University Technology Sydney, School of Public Health
University of Queensland, Mayne Academy of General Practice & General Practice Clinical Unit
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Department of Primary Care, University of Oxford
Behavioural Science and Health, University College London
University of Cambridge, Department of Public Health & Primary Care
University of Exeter, Department of Public Health and Sport Sciences
Queen Mary University of London (Wolfson Institute of Population Health)
University of Southern Denmark, Research Unit of General Practice
National University of Singapore, Yong Loo Lin School Of Medicine
National Technological University Singapore, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine

Research Publication Highlights
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Chima, S., Gutierrez, J. M., Hunter, B., Laughlin, A., Chondros, P., Lumsden, N., ... & Emery, J. (2024). Future Health Today: A pragmatic cluster randomised trial of quality improvement activities in general practice for patients at risk of undiagnosed cancer. The British journal of general practice: the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, BJGP-2024.
McIntosh, J. G., Jenkins, M., Wood, A., Chondros, P., Campbell, T., Wenkart, E., ... & Emery, J. D. (2024). Increasing bowel cancer screening using SMS in general practice: the SMARTscreen cluster randomised trial. British Journal of General Practice, 74(741), e275-e282
Onwuka, S. R., Boyd, L., Wijesuriya, R., Broun, K., Marker, J., Shub, M., ... & Emery, J. (2024). Should I Take Aspirin? (SITA): RCT of a decision aid for cancer chemoprevention. British Journal of General Practice.
Rafiq, M., Drosdowsky, A., Solomon, B., Alexander, M., Gibbs, P., Wright, G., ... & Emery, J. (2024). Trends in primary care blood tests prior to lung and colorectal cancer diagnosis—A retrospective cohort study using linked Australian data. Cancer Medicine, 13(14), e70006
Venning B, Emery J. Symptomatic cancer diagnosis in general practice: a critical perspective of current guidelines and risk assessment tools. MJA 2024. doi: 10.5694/mja2.52287
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Drosdowsky, A., Lamb, K. E., Bergin, R. J., Boyd, L., Milley, K., IJzerman, M. J., & Emery, J. D. (2023). A systematic review of methodological considerations in time to diagnosis and treatment in colorectal cancer research. Cancer Epidemiology, 83, 102323.
Emery, J., Jenkins, M. A., Saya, S., Chondros, P., Oberoi, J., Milton, S., ... & McIntosh, J. G. (2023). The CRISP Trial: RCT of a decision support tool for risk-stratified colorectal cancer screening. British Journal of General Practice.
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J Emery, P Butow, J Lai-Kwon, L Nekhlyudov, M Rynderman, M Jefford. Management of common clinical problems experienced by survivors of cancer. The Lancet 2022. 399 (10334), 1537-1550.
M Jefford, D Howell, Q Li, K Lisy, J Maher, CM Alfano, M Rynderman, J Emery. Improved models of care for cancer survivors .The Lancet 2022. 399 (10334), 1551-1560
Venning, B., Saya, S., Lourenco, R.D.A., Street, D.J. and Emery, J.D., 2022. Preferences for a polygenic test to estimate cancer risk in a general Australian population. Genetics in Medicine. 24: 2144-54.
Explore the extensive body of work from the Cancer Research Group, encompassing over 220 publications since 2018.