Today I visited the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane and announced the Government will provide a $7.5 million grant to establish a Prostate Cancer Research Centre at the Hospital, to be hosted by the Queensland University of Technology (QUT).
This fulfils an election commitment for $15 million over five years for the establishment of two dedicated Prostate Cancer Research Centres, as part of the Rudd Government's $249 million National Cancer Plan.
This level of investment in prostate cancer research is a first in Australia.
The Prostate Cancer Research Centres will develop improved diagnostic and screening tools as well as new treatments for prostate cancer.
In November I announced that one of the Prostate Cancer Research Centres will be located at the Epworth Hospital in Richmond, Victoria. Today I am delighted to announce the second Prostate Cancer Research Centre will be based in Brisbane.
The Centre based at the Princess Alexandra Hospital and hosted by QUT will:
- Identify new ways to detect the presence of prostate cancer and reliably differentiate between slow growing and aggressive forms of the disease;
- Develop new drug therapies that target the molecular mechanisms that allow prostate cancers to resist current drug treatments; and
- Identify accurate markers that will assist in predicting treatment response.
The Centre will later relocate to dedicated research and clinical space in the Translational Research Institute in Brisbane, when the Institute is completed in 2012.
Prostate cancer is the second most common cause of cancer death in males after lung cancer, with 3,000 men dying from the disease annually.
Each year in Australia we see over 18,000 new diagnoses of prostate cancer, with approximately 20,000 men living with advanced prostate cancer at any one time.
As a prostate cancer survivor, I know how invaluable the findings of the Prostate Cancer Research Centres and clinical trials will be, and I thank all who have made today's announcement possible.
Today I also announce the Government is providing funding to help build Australia's capacity to conduct national cancer clinical trials in prostate cancer and testicular, bladder, renal and other urogenital cancers.
The funds, which will be administered by Cancer Australia, will be provided to the Australian and New Zealand Urogenital and Prostate Cancer Trials Group under the Support for Cancer Clinical Trials program.
These clinical trials will help improve the outcomes of people with cancer and reduce premature death and disability. They are part of the Rudd Government's $15 million commitment to boost cancer research in the area of clinical trials.
The Government provides $7.5 million each year to support cancer clinical trials groups, which includes an increase of $2.5 million per annum provided in the 2008-09 Budget.
The funding supports more than a dozen different groups to plan and manage national collaborative cancer clinical trials, including in lung cancer, colorectal cancer, breast cancer and gynaecological cancers.
This will include the establishment of a new prostate and urogenital national cancer clinical trials group, as part of this initiative.