Funded Projects

Southern Cancer Care provides annual funding for a cancer research grant to the amount of $50,000, administered by our research partner the St George and Sutherland Medical Research Foundation (SSMRF) Research Committee. This commitment reflects our continued focus on advancing cancer research and strengthening cancer care within our local health services.

In December 2021 Professor Yong Li was the successful recipient of this funding. Professor Li will conduct a new study – Validation of extracellular protein biomarkers in blood for the personalised treatment decision of prostate cancer patients – to help better diagnose and then treat prostate cancer.

In 2023, funding supported two projects: Dr Ramesh Shanmugasundaram’s multicentre prospective study assessing the diagnostic utility of multi-parametric MRI diffusion kurtosis imaging in the evaluation of masses, and Dr Joel Poder’s study quantifying the robustness of prostate cancer radiomics features across imaging devices.

In 2024, Dr Joel Poder received funding for Same-day MRI-only simulation and treatment of stereotactic radiotherapy.

In 2025, Dr Joyce Chiu was awarded funding for Targeting tumour-derived enzymes to boost T-cell infiltration and immunotherapy success.