Department of Surgery Translational Research Grant for 2020

Professor Alexander Dobrovic wins Department of Surgery Translational Research Grant for 2020.

Australian healthcare services face an increasing challenge to provide at risk patients with timely screening colonoscopies. Due to the increasing burden of colorectal cancer, colonoscopy waitlists are growing at an unmanageable rate. Recent widespread cancellations of elective endoscopy due to the COVID-19 pandemic have recently further exacerbated this problem.

The predominant non-invasive screening test for colorectal cancer, to date has been faecal occult blood testing. Recently, a test to detect tumour DNA in faeces has been shown to have superior sensitivity to faecal occult blood testing for the detection of colorectal cancer and advanced polyps. Patients are, however, often averse to faecal testing, evidenced by the 42% participation rate in bowel cancer screening nationally.  We propose to harness the exquisite sensitivity and specificity of tumour-derived DNA analysis for the detection of colorectal cancer through the use of a novel blood test that will be more acceptable to the screening population.

Join us in congratulating Professor Dobrovic and his team on this exciting win.