Austin Research Institute – 1992

1992 – $1.08 million research grant

Research Institution: Austin Research Institute, Heidelberg, Victoria

Director of Research: Professor Mark Hogarth

Cancer Type: Prostate cancer, ovarian cancer, breast cancer and colon cancers and leukaemia

Feature Outcome:

Discovery of new methods of stimulating immunity

Research Background / Overview:

Cancer research at the Austin Research Institute continues to flourish after the ACRF provided funds to the newly opened Institute in 1991.

Further Key Outcomes:

• Successful conclusion of Phase 1 and beginning of Phase 2 clinical trial directed at a new method of stimulating the immune system.
• Further improvement of new antibody-based drugs for the treatment of leukaemia and prostate, ovarian, breast and colon cancers.
• Development of new ways to stimulate immunity to treat and prevent cancer.

2000 Update by Professor Mark Hogarth

The Austin Research Institute is undertaking clinical trials on some of its new research. A Phase I immunotherapy trial, completed in 2002, showed consistent cancer cell-specific immune responses in patients and no treatment related side effects. The therapy is a highly promising treatment for patients suffering from cancers of the lung, breast, ovary, prostate, colon or kidney.

Every patient in the trial produced immune cells, which allow the patient’s immune system to recognise cancer cells and attack them. Immunotherapy boosts the patient’s immune system, enabling it to fight the cancer. This novel approach involves extracting “dendritic cells” from the patient’s blood, manipulating the immune cells by exposing them in the laboratory to “the target” and then injecting these cells into the patient to induce an immune response. An important feature is that no patients experienced any side effects.

The next stage, the Phase II trial, will commence in 2003 and will assess the clinical efficacy of the treatment in different cancer types. Other novel cancer vaccines and treatments are being developed and will be trialled shortly.