Patient Central Hub

Icon Cancer Centres around Australia have been providing complimentary lymphedema screening service for patients with breast cancer and other cancers. The screening service aims to identify those at risk of developing lymphedema and implement management plans to prevent progression.

The Strong for Oesophago-gastric Cancer Surgery (SOCS) program is an enhanced prehabilitation package with the aim of improving patient experience and outcomes following oesophageal and gastric cancer surgery. This is achieved through delivering nutritional, physical, and psychological support to patients before their surgery at Austin Health.

An advanced cancer diagnosis is a life changing and traumatic event. Not only is an individual already physically impacted by the physical manifestations of cancer but the life changing nature of the diagnosis with very serious implications for one's life expectancy and need to start treatments and especially so in the midst of a pandemic, has highly significant emotional impact.

Awareness of and engagement with podcasts as an audio storytelling format continues to rise in Australia. However, research showed that there was no dedicated blood cancer podcast channel in Australia, which led to Leukemia Foundation developing the “Talking Blood Cancer” podcast in late 2021.

Pancare Foundation provides support to patients and carers impacted by pancreatic, liver, biliary, oesophageal and stomach cancers, from diagnosis, all the way through treatment, to end of life and ongoing counselling for bereaved carers through the PanSupport Team. Pancare offers no-cost holistic, specialist nursing (PanSupport Upper GI Nurses), counselling and bespoke support for anyone with upper GI cancer and their families through the PanSupport Team.

A series of educational videos addressing specific aspects of oncology procedures, treatment regimens and support services, will provide tailored information for new patients presenting to Townsville Cancer Centre (TCC). Patient advocate, Damien Thompson, recognises the need for such tailored information following his own experiences undergoing treatment. Such an initiative will allow patients access to a trusted source of information personalised to their health care journey.

Infections are a major cause of morbidity and mortality in cancer. Sepsis and neutropenic fever are common amongst cancer patients and the additional costs associated with sepsis, inappropriate antimicrobial therapy especially prolonged durations, antibiotic complications, and allergy labels are significant. Cancer patients are becoming more complex, and surviving longer, and there are major pressures with patient flow, not to mention equitable quality of care no matter where our patients live.

Chemotherapy induced nerve damage or peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) is a significant persisting toxicity of chemotherapy treatment and is a common reason for chemotherapy dose reduction or early cessation. Despite this impact, there are no standardised assessment strategies and significant discrepancies in clinical management across centres.

Lymphoma is the most common blood cancer and 6th most common cause of cancer in Australians. The majority of patients require combination chemotherapy to control, and in many cases, cure lymphoma. Osteoporotic fractures are a substantial cause of morbidity, disability, and mortality and early identification of increased fracture risk and comprehensive risk management can reduce these outcomes.

The Australian Prostate Centre (APC) is a not-for-profit organisation located in Melbourne, dedicated to complete multidisciplinary survivorship care for patients with prostate cancer. In 2017 we established a multi-disciplinary Hormone Therapy Clinic for men who are prescribed androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) to treat their prostate cancer.

A model of supportive care for men living with prostate cancer within both the public and private sector has been devised by Ian Henderson, Prostate Cancer Specialist Nurse at Royal Hobart Hospital, along with the ICON Cancer Centre Hobart and other private healthcare facilities. This model of care highlights that when government and private health care facilities work jointly together, it can remove inequities in health care with positive outcomes for patients and staff.

The team at Flinders Center for Innovation in Cancer (FCIC) have piloted a pathway for Geriatric Assessment and Intervention (GAIn) for older patients with cancer. Newly diagnosed patients aged 70+ years, planned for systemic therapy, participate in a number of best practice geriatric assessments (such as ECOG performance status, G8 frailty score, Cancer and Ageing Research Group (CARG) Toxicity Scores and CIRS-G for competing comorbidities), prior to commencing treatment.

The Cancer Toolkit is a simple peer-to-peer resource that educates, equips and empowers the newly diagnosed patient, and their supporter community. The Toolkit consists of three pillars – patient, supporter and community.

The Canberra Region Cancer Centre (CRCC) provides Medical Oncology, Radiation Oncology, Haematology and Palliative Care Services for the region. In 2013, a Cancer Rapid Assessment Unit (CRAU) was created to facilitate timely review, diagnosis and intervention of cancer and chemotherapy related toxicities and side effects.

The CSID project is an online resource, developed by the Australian Cancer Survivorship Centre (ACSC), a department of Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, for both cancer survivors and their carers, and for health professionals, to provide accessible, easy-to-read and evidence-based information on the common issues experienced by people after treatment for cancer, also known as the survivorship phase.