A study involving 15,000 Australians which aims to develop a next-generation, standardised diagnosis for melanoma is one of 30 clinical trials and cohort studies to be funded through the Morrison Government’s $74 million investment to find better ways to prevent, detect and treat disease.
The $3.2 million melanoma cohort study, led by Associate Professor Victoria Mar from Monash University and Alfred Health, will be the first in the world to document on such a large scale the whole skin surface of participants with histopathology images and other patient details.
The Morrison Government’s investment will support 20 clinical trials and 10 cohort studies for up to five years and will fill important gaps in knowledge about the causes of disease and test the effectiveness of new approaches to disease prevention, detection and treatment.
Minister for Health and Aged Care Greg Hunt said the trial would help to discover more effective diagnosis options thousands of Australians who are tested for skin cancer each year.
“Skin cancer costs the Australian healthcare system more than $1 billion annually. Australia has the highest rate of melanoma, the deadliest form, for which there is currently no standardised diagnosis,” Minister Hunt said.
“This study will use cutting-edge, total-body 3D imaging machines across metropolitan and regional Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria, with the research team working to develop next-generation diagnostic and prognostic algorithms for early detection of melanoma and skin cancer.”
“Clinical trials and cohort studies are crucial sources of evidence for the improvement of health and healthcare. Each of these projects has the potential to improve health outcomes here in Australia and across the globe.”
Awarded by the National Health and Medical Research Council and commencing in 2021, the funded projects will investigate a range of health issues.
This includes:
- A trial led by University of Melbourne/Orygen’s Associate Professor Simon Rice will determine the effectiveness of the online social media-based intervention Affinity to reduce suicidal thoughts and behaviours in young people seeking care for major depressive disorder.
- A clinical trial in Papua New Guinea led by Dr Holger Unger of the Menzies School of Health Research to assess the advantages of combining the anti-malarial treatments sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine and dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine to clear malaria among pregnant women while reducing the adverse outcomes such as miscarriage and stillbirth (fetal loss), low birth weight, and neonatal death.
- A clinical trial led by Associate Professor Leanne Sakzewski from the University of Queensland will include 150 children with cerebral palsy (CP) to compare a new intervention, ACTIVE STRIDES -CP, with usual care.
By testing new healthcare interventions in volunteers under controlled conditions, clinical trials underpin decisions on whether to use a new diagnostic, drug, vaccine or procedure. Cohort studies uncover risk factors and causes of disease by following groups of people over time, sometimes many years.
A full list of grant recipients is below and available on NHMRC’s website: www.nhmrc.gov.au.
-ENDS-
| Chief Investigator A |
Application Title |
Administering Institution |
Budget
$ |
| Associate Professor Simon Rice
|
Pragmatic trial of a targeted digital intervention for youth with suicidal thoughts and behaviours attending outpatient care |
University of Melbourne |
$1,443,572 |
| Associate Professor Rebecca McKetin
|
A Phase III randomised placebo-controlled trial of mirtazapine as a pharmacotherapy for methamphetamine (“Ice”) dependence |
University of New South Wales |
$3,923,009 |
| Professor Richard Kanaan
|
Breathing Control as a treatment for Non-Epileptic Seizures |
University of Melbourne |
$1,740,187 |
| Professor Shyamali Dharmage
|
Providing translatable evidence to advance prevention and management of COPD: a longitudinal study from the 1st to 7th decade of life |
University of Melbourne |
$2,893,320 |
| Professor Jonathan Shaw
|
PRogrEssion of DIabetic ComplicaTions – PREDICT |
Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute |
$4,784,627 |
| Professor Trevor Leong
|
AGITG TOP GEAR: A randomised phase II/III trial of preoperative chemoradiotherapy versus preoperative chemotherapy for resectable gastric cancer |
University of Sydney |
$621,644 |
| Dr Holger Unger
|
Intermittent preventive treatment in pregnancy with sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine plus dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine to reduce adverse pregnancy outcomes and prevent malaria in Papua New Guinea: a randomised controlled trial |
Menzies School of Health Research |
$2,938,453 |
| Professor Stephanie Brown
|
Uncovering the hidden impacts and costs of exposure to intimate partner violence in childhood: a 20-year cohort study |
Murdoch Children’s Research Institute |
$1,595,473 |
| Dr Christina Abdel Shaheed
|
IMPLORE – Implementing an opioid stewardship intervention to reduce opioid use |
University of Sydney |
$2,352,236 |
| Professor Carol Hodgson
|
Low OxyGen Intervention for Cardiac Arrest injury Limitation trial (LOGICAL) |
Monash University |
$2,314,403 |
| Associate Professor Camille
Raynes-Greenow
|
Reducing household air pollution exposure to improve early child health and development; extending the intervention and follow-up of “Poriborton: the CHANge trial”. |
University of Sydney |
$2,916,421 |
| Associate Professor Kirsten Morley
|
A randomised controlled trial of N-acetylcysteine for the treatment of alcohol use disorder |
University of Sydney |
$1,294,923 |
| Professor Jane Pillow
|
Cognitive Improvement through early Restoration of cirCADian rhythms in very preterm Infants via Environmental Modification: The CIRCA DIEM Study |
University of Western Australia |
$3,077,039 |
| Associate Professor Victoria Mar
|
Reconceiving early detection of melanoma |
Monash University |
$3,217,920 |
| Professor Ian Hickie
|
A large-scale clinical effectiveness (health services) trial to determine whether personalised health care packages, combined with digitally-supported measurement-based care, improve functional outcomes in young people with mood disorders |
University of Sydney |
$3,434,588 |
| Professor Y C Gary Lee
|
Australasian Malignant Pleural Effusion (AMPLE)-3 trial |
University of Western Australia |
$1,105,749 |
| Professor Peter Morris
|
‘Azithromycin before Birth’- Single dose azithromycin shortly before birth to reduce infection in Aboriginal mothers and babies: a randomised controlled trial. |
Menzies School of Health Research |
$3,205,109 |
| Dr Bei Bei
|
A Scalable Insomnia Program during the Pregnancy and Postpartum Periods: An Effectiveness-Implementation Hybrid Trial |
Monash University |
$877,335 |
| Professor Susan Ramus
|
Prospective Ovarian Cancer Cohort to Authenticate Stratification of Prognosis in Ovarian Tumours (POCCA-SPOT) |
University of New South Wales |
$993,580 |
| Professor Andrew Wei
|
INTERCEPT (Investigating Novel Therapy to target Early Relapse and Clonal Evolution as Pre-emptive Therapy in AML): a multi-arm, precision-based, recursive, platform trial |
Monash University |
$5,789,515 |
| Professor Georgina Long
|
Anti-PD 1 Brain Collaboration + Radiotherapy Extension: The ABC-X Study |
Melanoma Institute Australia |
$1,010,142 |
| Professor Erica Wood
|
Preventing infections in patients with blood cancer through evidence-based use of immunoglobulin or alternatives: The RATIONALISE trial |
Monash University |
$2,490,422 |
| Associate Professor Valerie Sung
|
Whole-of-population CRISPR point-of-care testing for congenital cytomegalovirus to prevent hearing and neurodevelopment disabilities through a public health approach |
Murdoch Children’s Research Institute |
$2,058,921 |
| Associate Professor Kenneth Pang
|
Trans20: A longitudinal cohort study to improve outcomes for transgender children and adolescents |
Murdoch Children’s Research Institute |
$1,566,662 |
| Associate Professor Joanne Ryan
|
Clinical trial to determine the effects of statins on cognition: STAREE-Mind |
Monash University |
$2,795,200 |
| Dr Rachel Peters
|
Food allergy in the first 15 years of life: wave 5 of the HealthNuts longitudinal study |
Murdoch Children’s Research Institute |
$2,435,075 |
| Professor Rachel Neale
|
The effect of high SPF sunscreen application on vitamin D |
The Council of the Queensland Institute of Medical Research |
$1,175,124 |
| Associate Professor Leanne Sakzewski
|
ACTIVE STRIDES-CP: Randomised trial of Intensive Rehabilitation (Combined Intensive Gait and Cycling Training) for children with moderate to severe bilateral cerebral palsy |
The University of Queensland |
$2,401,294 |
| Professor Alex Brown
|
Predicting Renal, Ophthalmic and Heart Events in the Aboriginal Community: The PROPHECY Diabetes Multi-Omics Cohort Study |
The University of Adelaide |
$3,955,505 |
| Professor Bruce Neal
|
A randomised trial of the effects of SGLT2 inhibition versus metformin on decline in renal function when used as first line therapy in type 2 diabetes |
University of New South Wales |
$3,815,693 |
| Total |
74,223,141 |
|
