Latrobe Regional Hospital Clinical Trials Coordinator, Ms Joanne Parr was recently honoured for her outstanding work in coordinating innovative and ground-breaking treatments for gastro-intestinal cancer – a rare and neglected group of cancers.
As the inaugural recipient of The Christine Aiken Memorial Award for Excellence in Study Coordination, Ms Parr was honoured by the Australasian Gastro-Intestinal Trials Group (AGITG), during their Annual Scientific Meeting. This is the only meeting in Australia and New Zealand dedicated to research and clinical trials for people with all GI cancers, which affect 28,900 Australians each year.
The Christine Aiken Memorial Award for Excellence in AGITG Study Coordination honours Christine Aiken to recognise her contributions to the success of AGITG trials over many years, benefiting countless patients across the globe. In receiving the award, Ms Parr has been recognised for her significant and outstanding contribution to AGITG trials. Ms Parr will also receive up to $2,000 to pursue further education.
Latrobe Regional Hospital (LRH) is the main provider of specialist services in the Gippsland region which has a population of more than 270,000. LRH’s Cancer Services Clinical Trials unit opened in 2019. Until early this year, Ms Parr was the sole research nurse/study coordinator for the unit. In her role, she has been the coordinator of two AGITG studies:
- FORECAST-1, which aims to address a large unmet need for people with metastatic colorectal cancer when standard therapy fails, by using new technology to grow Patient-Derived Tumour Organoids from biopsies of patients’ tumour tissue. Researchers then model the effectiveness of anti-cancer treatments on individual cancers in a petri-dish, better tailoring each patient’s treatment.
- DYNAMIC-Rectal, which aims to demonstrate the usefulness of ctDNA blood tests in deciding which patient will or will not require chemotherapy after rectal cancer surgery.
“It’s a great honour to be the first recipient of the Christine Aiken Memorial Award for Excellence in Study Coordination,” says Ms Parr.
“In the two years that I’ve been involved with AGITG clinical trials there’s no doubt in my mind that over this time we’ve seen improvements in outcomes and provided opportunities of hope for patients with GI cancers.”
Ms Parr was presented with the award at the AGITG’s virtual Annual Scientific Meeting, held from 13 to 15 October.
Chair of the AGITG, Dr Lorraine Chantrill, says: “Ms Parr is highly deserving of this award. She truly exemplifies the attributes and passion of a Study Coordinator – displaying the drive and passion to help complete clinical trials with the AGITG to find better treatments for patients with GI cancers. The bar has been set very high and I know that Christine Aiken would agree that Ms Parr is a worthy winner.”
Source: AGITG
