Cancer trials focus for new clinical hub

BENDIGO Health has partnered with a new program aimed at upskilling staff to carry out more cancer treatments locally.

Coordinated by Alfred Health and known as a TrialHub, the project is attempting to uncover gaps and opportunities in regional Victorian clinical trials in oncology to improve their delivery and access.

Clinical director of cancer services Dr Robert Blum said the hub would allow Bendigo Health to build on what it already offers and give staff an opportunity to learn from within the region.

“While we’ve been delivering clinical trials for some time, we have never formalised the structure and gaps to become a completely independent trial unit before,” he said.

“This is about improving structural and skill gaps to take us to the next level but it also provides our staff an opportunity to specialise in clinical trials without having to leave the region.

“We have amazing staff here who want to specialise in clinical trials and this program is enabling that.”

A new workforce development program is in place at Bendigo Health as part of the initiative, and workers like Dr Chloe Georgiou are being trained by Alfred Health experts.

She is the hospital’s first ever clinical trials fellow and one their new staff employed this year with TrialHub funding. She said the extra workforce numbers allowed for more trials to take place.

“We’ve been able to expand our capacity for taking on new trials, getting more people on trials because we now have more manpower or womanpower to actually see people and it’s really been a rapid growth with what we’ve seen so far,” she said.

Bendigo Health currently oversees 17 clinical trials in oncology for some 130 patients and Dr Georgiou said new trials could involve different drugs, or treatments in earlier stages of cancer.

“What we’re trying to do is have a good spread of trial options for people with different cancer types at different stages of their disease to offer treatment that otherwise wouldn’t be accessible through Medicare and save people travelling to Melbourne to get these opportunities,” she said.

“The fact that we can have treatment nearby and not potentially put people at risk of travelling to areas with COVID is really important.

“We can also collaborate with other regional sites and potentially pool resources on offering trials in the regions that would actually reach out to more people.”