Published Thursday, 03 May, 2007 at 01:38 PM
Deputy Premier, Treasurer and Minister for Infrastructure
The Honourable Anna Bligh
CANCER BREAKTHROUGH FOR PRINCESS ALEXANDRA HOSPITAL
May 3, 2007
A Brisbane hospital will be the first in the world to use a research device that can reduce the amount of time many women with early breast cancer will spend in hospital, Acting Premier Anna Bligh said today.
Ms Bligh said the semi-automated tissue microarrayer would allow doctors to quickly determine if women with early-stage breast cancers needed to proceed directly to the removal of lymph nodes, saving them from having two invasive procedures.
The breakthrough treatment would affect about 700 women of the 2200 new cases of breast cancer diagnosed in Queensland each year.
A $94,000 grant from the Golden Casket Foundation has been used to buy the microarrayer, to be stationed at the Princess Alexandra Hospital by the Queensland Health Pathology Service.
“Importantly, it will save women an additional operation that would have meant an extra four days or more in hospital away from their loved ones.”
“This is a great benefit to both the patients and the hospital system.
“If this research is successful it will result in a cost saving of over $2 million and 3000 bed days per year,” Ms Bligh said.
Princess Alexandra Pathology Department director Dr Glenn Francis said the semi-automated microarrayer enables high-throughput screening of a large number of tissues, increasing accuracy of diagnosis by decreasing the risk of human error.
“The manual tissue microarrayers involve a lot of repetitive steps to receive a result. By using the semi-automated microarrayer, 150 tumors will be able to be assessed on each slide,” he said.
Dr Francis said the arrayer can be used for all cancer types. “We are collaborating with researchers for prostrate cancer, lymphoma and head and neck cancer,” he said.
Golden Casket Foundation Chair David Ford said 11 research projects had been funded by the Golden Casket Foundation.
“So far we have provided over $2 million in funds for Queensland-based health and medical research. We anticipate the call for papers for the next round will be made in July this year,” Mr Ford said.
Golden Casket’s Chief Executive Bill Thorburn said more than $24 million worth of unclaimed first division prizes in Queensland helped fund the Foundation.
“The Foundation is another example of how Golden Casket has contributed to the health and wellbeing of Queenslanders for the past 90 years,” Mr Thorburn said.
More information: Deputy Premier’s Office 3224 6900
A Brisbane hospital will be the first in the world to use a research device that can reduce the amount of time many women with early breast cancer will spend in hospital, Acting Premier Anna Bligh said today.
Ms Bligh said the semi-automated tissue microarrayer would allow doctors to quickly determine if women with early-stage breast cancers needed to proceed directly to the removal of lymph nodes, saving them from having two invasive procedures.
The breakthrough treatment would affect about 700 women of the 2200 new cases of breast cancer diagnosed in Queensland each year.
A $94,000 grant from the Golden Casket Foundation has been used to buy the microarrayer, to be stationed at the Princess Alexandra Hospital by the Queensland Health Pathology Service.
“Importantly, it will save women an additional operation that would have meant an extra four days or more in hospital away from their loved ones.”
“This is a great benefit to both the patients and the hospital system.
“If this research is successful it will result in a cost saving of over $2 million and 3000 bed days per year,” Ms Bligh said.
Princess Alexandra Pathology Department director Dr Glenn Francis said the semi-automated microarrayer enables high-throughput screening of a large number of tissues, increasing accuracy of diagnosis by decreasing the risk of human error.
“The manual tissue microarrayers involve a lot of repetitive steps to receive a result. By using the semi-automated microarrayer, 150 tumors will be able to be assessed on each slide,” he said.
Dr Francis said the arrayer can be used for all cancer types. “We are collaborating with researchers for prostrate cancer, lymphoma and head and neck cancer,” he said.
Golden Casket Foundation Chair David Ford said 11 research projects had been funded by the Golden Casket Foundation.
“So far we have provided over $2 million in funds for Queensland-based health and medical research. We anticipate the call for papers for the next round will be made in July this year,” Mr Ford said.
Golden Casket’s Chief Executive Bill Thorburn said more than $24 million worth of unclaimed first division prizes in Queensland helped fund the Foundation.
“The Foundation is another example of how Golden Casket has contributed to the health and wellbeing of Queenslanders for the past 90 years,” Mr Thorburn said.
More information: Deputy Premier’s Office 3224 6900