Kirsten Duggan is now more than a talented researcher at the Ingham Institute for Applied Medical Research.
The clinical cancer registry scientist can now add “major award winner’’ to her resume after scooping the “Best of the Best Award for Oral Presentations – Lung Cancer” at the Clinical Oncology Society of Australia’s (COSA) 41st Annual Scientific Meeting (ASM) in Melbourne a week before Christmas Day.
The COSA event is the one of the biggest conferences on the Australian cancer research calendar and Ms Duggan’s prestigious award was for a new cancer services study which evaluated the patterns of palliative and psychosocial care in patients with lung cancer who live in south west Sydney.
Non-small cell lung cancer accounts for approximately 80-85 per cent of all lung cancers.
“Most patients with non-small cell lung cancer in south west Sydney present with metastatic disease, meaning that the cancer has spread from the lung to other parts of the body,” Ms Duggan said this week.
“As these patients currently cannot be cured of their cancer, the goals of cancer services are to alleviate the symptoms of the disease to enhance their quality of life as much as possible.
“This makes palliative and psychosocial care key to their management programs.”
Phase one of the study investigated the rates of referral to palliative care and psychosocial care for 923 patients and assessed the quality of the care with the aim of improving the level of service delivery, quality of life and care for cancer patients.
“Data from other Australian studies have indicated that approximately two thirds of patients with advanced cancer receive a referral to palliative care” continued Ms Duggan.
“The results of our study revealed that the rates of referral within the local population were high, but favoured patients who received active cancer treatment, which warrants further investigation.
“Additionally, there were geographic differences noted in the rates of referral. We need to conduct further work to determine the factors that contribute to referral gaps.”
The study would be further expanded in 2015.
Ms Duggan said that she was both delighted and humbled to receive the prestigious COSA award.
“This award is testament not only to my own work but also the work of my research team in our efforts to optimise the quality of care and services impacting cancer patients, their families and caregivers,” Ms Duggan said.
Professor Michael Barton, OAM, Research Director at the Ingham Institute, congratulated Ms Duggan on her award.
“Kirsten’s ability to provide the evidence base for improved care for people affected by cancer is recognised by this COSA Award,’’ Mr Barton said.
“It is a very well deserved achievement and demonstrates Kirstens’ high-level talent and contribution to cancer research,” he said.
The Ingham Institute is a not-for-profit research organisation in Sydney established to undertake medical research that specifically addresses, and can be applied to, the needs of the local population and wider Australia.
Located at Liverpool Hospital, the Ingham Institute is changing the way medical research is done in Australia by transferring research into practice across its six research streams, enabling the swift transfer of findings into day-to-day medical practice.
The Institute’s research team are focused on exploring new medical approaches for a range of critical disease including cancer, clinical science (comprising cardiovascular disease, diabetes, infectious and inflammatory diseases), community & population health, early years/childhood health, injury and rehabilitation and mental health and are at the forefront of the most advanced medical breakthroughs and clinical outcomes.
