Clinicians

If you answer “yes” to the following statements your patient may qualify for the pan cancer and leukaemia/lymphoma cohorts.

Your patient:

• is aged 18 years and older, with pathologically confirmed advanced and/or metastatic cancer of any histologic type, including haematological cancers, or an earlier diagnosis of a poor prognosis cancer;
• has tissue available for molecular screening;
• has no more than one standard treatment available.
• is self-caring in all activities of daily living, and out of bed more than half of each day (ECOG performance status 0, 1 or 2).
• is not pregnant, lactating or planning to become pregnant.

If you answer “yes” to the following statements your patient may qualify for the lung cancer cohort.

Your patient:

• is aged 18 years and older, with newly diagnosed pathologically confirmed metastatic non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer (mNSCLC);
• has tissue available for molecular screening;
• has an ECOG performance status 0 or 1.
• has not had any previous treatment for metastatic non-squamous NSCLC.

To get your patient onto the molecular screening stage of the program you will need to:

• Contact us or complete the MoST referral form (see the link below); for ASPiRATION follow the link above
• Supply a histopathology report for your patient and any relevant clinical information
• Receive the results of molecular screening test and discuss the results with your patient
• If appropriate and available, refer your patient to a MoST clinical trial or follow up on treatment options highlighted in the screening report
• Continue to provide us with follow up information about your patient.

If your patient is eligible for the screening program we will:

• Consent your patient into the screening study
• Arrange to access tumour tissue held by a pathology centre
• Arrange for collection of a blood sample
• Analyse the tissue (molecular profiling)
• Following review by our molecular tumour board (MTB), provide you with a report containing the tumour molecular profile of the tumour and therapeutic recommendations including clinical trials.

The Australian Rare Cancer (ARC) Portal is an online referral service that aims to improve outcomes and access to research for Australians diagnosed with a rare cancer.

The ARC Portal offers expert clinical advice, particularly for Australians who live outside the major cancer treatment centres in metropolitan areas.

Rare Cancer Australia (RCA) provides support and advocacy for patients.

Canteen can provide support and someone to talk to for patients aged 12 – 25.

The RisC study is open to patients diagnosed with a cancer less than 40 years of age, patients diagnosed with 2 different cancer less than 50 years of age or 3 or more cancers over the age of 50 years.

SMOC+ is open to individuals at high risk of cancer due to their inherited genetic make-up. A referral from a family cancer clinic or genetic research study is required.

On referral, the RisC team  will send study information to the patient and discuss the details, by telephone or face to face. Participation will involve:

• consent for RisC to access medical and similar records, as well as samples held by pathology centres
• donation of  a blood sample
• providing a family history
• completion of a series of questionnaires
• optional consent for sample biobanking.
• optional consent for access to Medicare/PBS data

On referral, the SMOC+ team  will send out study information to the patient. Participation will involve:

• consenting for SMOC+ to access medical records
• visiting a family cancer clinic annually for a physical examination
• donating an annual blood sample
• completion of a series of questionnaires
• optional consent for access to Medicare/PBS data
• annual whole body MRI
• other surveillance according to the protocol.

RiSC  will perform a whole genome sequence to understand more about the genetic variants that might contribute to a risk of inherited cancer.