Delivering hope through the Cancer Council Beat Cancer Project

Dr Melissa Cantley from the University of Adelaide and SAHMRI is one of the 2022 Cancer Council Beat Cancer Project recipients funded through your support. It is her hope that, through funding from Cancer Council’s Beat Cancer Project, she can provide an insight into the fatal, incurable bone marrow cancer—multiple myeloma.

“Before a patient is diagnosed with multiple myeloma, their diagnosis is preceded by a pre-cancerous stage known as monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS),” she said.

“We currently have no way of identifying which MGUS patients will go on to develop myeloma and have no treatment to prevent this progression.

“This funding will enable cutting edge analysis of clinical samples to investigate what causes MGUS to progress to cancerous myeloma. We will also work to discover new blood-based biomarkers to identify which MGUS patients are at high risk of progressing to myeloma.

“Our hope is that, through support from Cancer Council’s Beat Cancer Project, we can change how we treat MGUS and myeloma and improve outcomes and quality of life for these patients.”

“I am very honoured to be awarded a Cancer Council Beat Cancer Fellowship. This funding is so important for researchers, particularly early career researchers like myself, to support our work.”

Targeted cancer research like that of Dr Cantley is the key to achieving a cancer free future for every South Australian, and through your generosity, we have been able to support some of the state’s best and brightest cancer researchers to work towards the next cancer breakthrough, which has the potential to save South Australian lives and give more people the precious gift of time.

Learn more about the Beat Cancer Project here.