Bowel Cancer Australia recently announced a team led by Professor Michael Samuel as the successful applicant for a three-year $600k early-onset bowel cancer research project through the 2023 round of Cancer Australia’s Priority-driven Collaborative Cancer Research Scheme (PdCCRS).
According to Bowel Cancer Australia, bowel cancer in the under fifties is trending upward, with 1-in-9 new bowel cancer cases now occurring in people under age 50, and presentation with metastatic disease more frequent in this demographic. Rates in the over fifties have stabilised or are declining.
Rho-associated kinase or ROCK, is an enzyme (protein) found in everyone, and it controls the shape and movement of cells within the body.
The way in which cancer cells communicate with normal cells in their environment via ROCK has been discovered to drive disease progression (invasion, metastasis, and recurrence). This understanding has revealed that blocking cancers from hijacking normal cells in this way could be a new way to target the disease.
Professor Samuel of the Centre for Cancer Biology (an alliance between the University of South Australia and SA Pathology) and the Basil Hetzel Institute for Translational Health Research will investigate ROCK-induced early-onset bowel cancer progression.
“People diagnosed with early-onset bowel cancer have a 50% chance that their cancer will recur or spread to other organs following initial intervention (e.g. surgery to remove the primary cancer), compared to around 30% in people diagnosed with late-onset bowel cancer,” says Professor Samuel.
“We have evidence that ROCK activity in bowel cancers drives this process by influencing how cancers communicate with their environment. Our project will investigate how this happens. We will also study whether certain effects of ROCK activation in early-onset bowel cancers can help us predict whose cancers will recur and whose will not,” he continues.
“In a practical sense, this could help us use targeted therapies that block cancer cells from communicating with their environment, in people who are most likely to experience recurrence of their cancer. It could also help us minimise the use of debilitating chemotherapies,” he adds.
The research team, which includes clinicians from the Central Adelaide Local Health Network, will also be examining whether proteins that interact with ROCK cause early-onset bowel cancer progression, and if they do, targeting these proteins would be a way of stopping ROCK from accelerating tumour growth.
Source: Bowel Cancer Australia
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ICTD: Why negative results in clinical trials matter
To mark International Clinical Trials Day 2026, Australian Health Journal commences a 4 part special series leaving up to 20th May. Through conversations with leading researchers, clinicians and trial organisations, the series highlights achievements in the year that was for clinical trials.
Negative results in a clinical trial can be extremely valuable — both scientifically and ethically. A “negative result” usually means the treatment being tested did not work better than the standard treatment, placebo, or expected outcome.Negative results in a clinical trial can be extremely valuable — both scientifically and ethically. A “negative result” usually means the treatment being tested did not work better than the standard treatment, placebo, or expected outcome.
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Supporting the mental health of the Australian health care workforce
Tara Hurster, is the CEO of The TARA Clinic and a psychologist who started working within the area of addiction in 2010. The TARA clinic, short for Therapeutic Addiction Recovery Assistance, recently started offering online programs to overcome and recover from addiction.
Tara spoke with Australian Health Journal about the early warning signs of anxiety and stress in health staff and executives, including irritability, changes in sleep patterns and diet leading to more serious mental health decline. These behaviours and symptoms increase the risk of substance abuse that could take the form of excessive smoking, drinking alcohol and drug use, porn, sex and gambling.
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Values in Workplace Culture
Professor Sabe Sabesan, is the Clinical Dean of the Townsville Regional Medical Training network incorporating the Townsville Hospital and Health Services and the Townsville Clinical School of the James Cook University and the director of the department of Medical oncology at the Townsville Cancer Centre, Townsville Hospital.
The Professor recently wrote, “Workforce wellness and engagement have become buzzwords in healthcare settings since there is an intimate relationship between staff wellbeing and performance of the healthcare system. Wellness initiatives such as wellness champions and wellness committees have been set up in response to emerging workforce mental health issues. These are largely reactive rather than being proactive in addressing or preventing the root cause of mental health issues.”
