$7.5 million in funding to the most promising cancer research in the country!

The Australian Cancer Research Foundation is committed to fighting cancer by funding research, tonight investing a further $7.5 million into the search for the cures.

At the cancer charity’s annual Chairman’s Dinner in Sydney, donors, fundraisers and researchers came together to celebrate the incredible research outcomes made possible through ACRF funding.

They also acknowledged the promising future of cancer research in Australia, as the ACRF made multi-million dollar grants available to three visionary research projects.

The Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne, and Brisbane’s Diamantina Institute and Centre for Clinical Research all received a significant funding boost of $3.5 million and $2 million each, respectively. At these cancer research centres, the ACRF will be funding research into rare cancers, as well as facilitating world-class, targeted detection and treatment programmes.

• $3.5 million: Research into rare cancers at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne. With this funding, research at Peter Mac will be able to specialise in rare tumour research, via a new facility called the ACRF Advanced Centre for Cancer Cell Isolation and Imaging.
  It will house cutting-edge technologies that have the power to monitor, isolate, image and genetically profile rare populations of cancer. Most importantly, it will significantly enhance detection and treatment strategies for patients with these most devastating and unique types of cancer.

• $2 million: Cancer detection technology at the Centre for Clinical Research, University of Queensland, Brisbane. This funding will provide the UQ Centre for Clinical Research with state-of-the-art technologies within their new ACRF Molecular Oncology Translational Imaging Facility. In particular, a PET/CT machine, and costs associated with housing MRI/PET and PET/CT hybrid scanners, will significantly enhance progress into cancer detection and treatment at the centre. The research team will focus on the detailed analysis of brain tumours, head and neck cancers, ovarian and prostate cancers.

• $2 million: Individualised oncology care at the Diamantina Institute, University of Queensland, Brisbane. The Diamantina Institute (now a three-time ACRF grant recipient), has been awarded seed-funding for a new Individualised Oncology Care centre located at the University’s Princess Alexandra Hospital campus. The new facility will integrate lab-based research with clinical studies and trials at the patient bedside, focusing primarily on skin cancers, breast cancers, leukaemia and lymphoma.

We thank our many donors and fundraisers for their generosity throughout 2012 – we are able to continue funding research with the power to be cancer thanks to their ongoing support.

The ACRF has now awarded more than $86 million ($60 million in just the last seven years) to cancer research in Australia. Every donation dollar we receive – 100% – goes to these incredible research projects that have the power to beat cancer.

Please click here to find out more about our cancer research grants!