Project Leader: Dr. Richard Tothill
Peter Mac Laboratory Head: Prof. D Bowtell.
Project Status: Steps 4 & 5: re-development of operational models and clinical trials.
The project aims to provide additional assistance to clinicians for the ~10% cancer cases that are difficult to diagnose by classical pathological techniques. Specifically, it is intended to develop a classifier that can identify the primary site of origin for the cancer, based on the genomic profile of a tissue sample. It is expected that this will result in more rapid, cost-effective and accurate cancer diagnosis, reduce patient morbidity associated with lengthy diagnostic procedures and use of ineffective treatment and improve overall patient survival.
This project has commercial support, through Circadian technologies, one of Australia’s most successful biotech incubator companies. The next stage is developing the proof-of-concept classifier in the context of a multi-site, multinational (UK, Australia) clinical trail of CUP treatment.
NICTA’s role will be in the provision of IT expertise necessary for re-evaluation and redevelopment of predictive models used for final diagnostic decision-making. The involvement of NICTA in this project is subject to additional agreement in order to preserve commercial interests of Circadian, who already invested into this project. For NICTA, this project could represent a rapid demonstration of the utility of its IT expertise in the biotech and medical sectors.