Dear Voornaam
Thank you for being part of the VCCC Alliance community this year.
We have collaborated, connected and networked more than ever before. I believe we are seeing an intrinsic shift in the cancer sector. Where once there were silos there are partnerships across organisations and disciplines; where once research questions were only posed by scientists and clinicians, we see consumers co-designing research, and where data was confined and inaccessible it’s being linked to open new opportunities for inquiry and impact.
It’s an exciting time. It’s not just happening across our alliance membership, it’s bigger and broader and this holds so much potential for us to change the things that haven’t shifted despite all the progress in research and treatments.
How do we ensure everyone benefits equally from what we already know and can already do? If we could just do that, we would save thousands of lives. How do we work together on those hard-to-treat cancers so they can join the ranks of the preventable and treatable?
I truly believe that genuine, well-structured collaborations of all kinds and at all levels are critical to answering such questions.
The Cancer Consumer-led Research Partnership announced by The Hon Tim Richardson MP last week is a great example, with five leading cancer entities joining forces to enhance consumer leadership and participation.
In our collaborative Centre for Cancer Immunotherapy, researchers from Peter Mac, WEHI, Doherty Institute/The University of Melbourne, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and Monash, work side by side, and over the past four years have published more than a dozen papers and attracted five times the initial investment in research funding.
And there are other recent examples in VCCC Alliance Data Connect, the Victorian Precision Oncology Summit, and the new Australian Comprehensive Cancer Network, and more.
As we head into summer and many of us take a well-deserved break, I encourage you to reflect on the connections you made this year and what changed as a result.Then peer into the year ahead and consider how working even more collaboratively could accelerate progress. What an impact that could make on the lives of people affected by cancer!
Inspiration
If you need a little inspiration, take some time to browse through the amazing array of content in our Centre for Cancer Education. There are brilliant lectures on a huge range of topics from leaders in their fields and some great courses (many free) if you feel like sharpening your skills for the new year.
I’ll also be catching up on some of the sessions from our fantastic Research Conference earlier this year. If you missed it, the recordings are now available online and I’ll be highlighting a few standouts on Linked In and X/Twitter over the month ahead.
In the meantime, sincere thanks and gratitude to those working through the holiday period to take care of others, and thoughts with those for whom times are difficult right now.
Seasons greetings to all and best wishes for a happy and fulfilling year in 2024.
