Professor Anna Nowak is an academic Medical Oncologist at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Western Australia, and Professor of Medicine in the School of Medicine and Pharmacology, University of Western Australia. Her clinical and research interests are in malignant pleural mesothelioma and neuro-oncology, with a PhD in tumor immunology and post-doctoral fellowship in clinical trials research giving her a niche as a ‘bench to bedside’ researcher who has implemented findings from her laboratory into first-in-man clinical trials. She has been a member of COGNO since its inception and her research in high grade glioma focuses on active participation in clinical trials and collaboration on psychosocial and supportive care research questions, as well as being co-chair of the AGOG tissue banking and genetic epidemiology project and Brain Cancer Biobanking Australia. In her association with COGNO, she has been a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee since its inception, was the Australian PI of the EORTC CATNON clinical trial, and is a member of the successful grant application team for the upcoming CODEL study. She has been site principal investigator of numerous clinical trials in high grade glioma at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital. Prof Nowak leads the neuro-oncology service at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, which sees around 130 new patients a year with glioma, and is committed to maximizing participation of these patients in clinical research.

 

 

Dr Koh is a consultant Radiation Oncologist based at Liverpool Cancer Therapy Centre, Liverpool Hospital, NSW. She qualified in Medicine at the University of Adelaide then completed her specialty training at Westmead Hospital. She undertook a three year Fellowship at the Princess Margaret Hospital, and the Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto, Canada, in the areas of adult and paediatric neuro-oncology and stereotactic radiotherapy, and also haematologic and breast malignancies.

Her clinical and research interests include neuro-oncology imaging, cognitive and behavioural sequelae in brain tumours, and clinical neuro-oncology care coordination. Dr Koh has a particular research interest in cancer survivorship and the study of late effects of cancer treatment in both adult and paediatric cancer patients.

She is the current chair of the Clinical Oncological Society of Australia (COSA) Neuro-oncology group and is the current Deputy chair of COGNO, and Deputy Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee and member of the Management Committee.

 

Treasurer

 

A/Prof Georgia Halkett is a Senior Research Fellow at Curtin University. Georgia’s program of research focuses on cancer patient’s psychosocial and information needs, communication between health professionals and cancer patients,  the needs of carers of patients diagnosed with brain cancer and research in radiation therapy.

 

A/Prof Halkett completed her PhD in December 2005 at the University of South Australia. She is a qualified radiation therapist and practiced as a radiation therapist at the Royal Adelaide Hospital until 2005 when she moved to Perth. In 2007, Georgia received her Fellowship of the Institute of Radiography.

 

Dr Liz Hovey
Secretary

 

Dr Hovey is a Senior Staff Specialist in Medical Oncology at Prince of Wales Hospital (POWH), Conjoint Senior Lecturer at UNSW and Honorary Associate of the University of Sydney. After completing advanced training at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, she completed further post-graduate training at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Centre, New York, NY, USA (1998-2001) during which time she was the recipient of a full scholarship to complete a Master of Biostatistics in Patient-Oriented Research at Columbia University School of Public Health (1999-2001). Prior to her 2007 appointment at Prince of Wales Hospital she was a medical oncologist at Liverpool Hospital.
 
Liz’s main areas of expertise and research interest are neuro-oncology, genitourinary oncology and geriatric oncology. She is currently COGNO’s Secretary/Operations Executive Member, and was previously Chair of COGNO’s SAC (Scientific Advisory Committee). She was a previous Chair of the COSA (Clinical Oncological Society of Australia) Neuro-oncology Group after 2 elected terms (2006-2010); Co-Founder and current Co-Chair of the NSW Neuro-oncology Group (alongside Dr Parkinson) at the NSW Cancer Institute. She was the Project Officer for the development of “Australian Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Management Adult  Gliomas: Astrocytomas and Oligodendrogliomas” on behalf of Australian Cancer Network, and was on the Working Party and Co-Editor of the subsequent matching Consumer Guidelines. In 2014 she was the co-author of a chapter for the US textbook “Neuro-Oncology” (editors: Mark Bernstein/Mitchel Berger). She is an inaugural member of the Editorial Board of Neuro-Oncology Practice (published by Oxford Press) as well as being a Review Editor for “Frontiers in Neuro-Oncology” and a neuro-oncology reviewer for Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Oncology.

In 2013 she was an invited COSA ASM plenary speaker speaking on the topic of elderly patients with glioma; in 2014 she was the keynote speaker for New Zealand Cancer Society (giving 12 talks around New Zealand on the topic of brain tumours) and an invited speaker at a WFNO (World Federation of Neuro-Oncology) Masterclass in Istanbul, Turkey. In June 2015, she presented a Neuro-oncology Oral Presentation at ASCO, presenting Part 2 results of the CABARET study on behalf of COGNO co-investigators. She was the Co-Convenor of the 2016 COGNO-ASNO ASM (& was also Convenor of the 2009 COGNO-COSA ASM).

She is the Australian CIA for the CODEL study for oligodendroglioma patients (which secured Cancer Australia/NSWCC funding) and is one of the CI’s for the upcoming Adult Medulloblastoma study  (with CANTEEN funding) including participating in the International Steering Committee. She was the NSW CI on the NHMRC grant for the previous EORTC Low Grade Glioma Study.

 

 

Professor Meera Agar is Professor of Palliative Medicine, Centre for Cardiovascular and Chronic Disease, University of Technology Sydney. She is a Palliative Medicine Physician and is the research lead for the South West Sydney Palliative Care Clinical Trials unit and the Clinical trials director, Ingham Institute of Applied Medical Research. Her research interests include delirium in advanced cancer, dementia end-of-life care, pharmacological and health service randomised controlled trials in palliative care and neuro-oncology supportive and palliative care research. She is the Chair of ImPACCT (Improving Palliative Care through Clinical Trials), the NSW collaborative trials group in palliative care.

 

Ms Marcia Fleet

 

Ms Marcia Fleet is a Cancer Care Coordinator in the Neuro-Oncology unit at Royal Melbourne Hospital.  Trained as a radiation therapist and worked for many years in departments in Victoria and NSW. This  experience of many years in oncology works well with the care coordination position. In the CCC position I work with the medical staff to support the patients and their families from before diagnosis often to end of life.  I am the go to person within the unit.  Run a support group for patients with high grade tumours.

Professor Hui Gan

Dr Sanjeev Gill

 

Dr Sanjeev Gill graduated from the University of Melbourne medical school & subsequently went on to study literature & Philosophy at Melbourne whilst working in general practice. He completed his specialist training in Medical Oncology and is a fellow of the Royal Australian college of Physicians. He was subsequently involved in clinical research for two years in the Tumour Targeting Laboratory of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research - investigating novel ways of targeting tumours. This was followed by two years primarily involved in Palliative Care before his appointment as a Medical Oncologist at the Alfred Hospital and Cabrini Hospital.

He is a member of numerous multidisciplinary cancer meetings including the Neuro Oncology MDM at Alfred Health & Cabrini.

Dr Gill is a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, European Society of Medical Oncology, COGNO , the Medical Oncology Group of Australia,  His major interests include Neuro Oncology, clinical research, gastro-intestinal cancer & genitourinary cancer.

 

 

Clinical Associate Professor Rosemary Harrup FRACP FRCPA trained in Medical Oncology and Clinical and Laboratory Haematology, completing a dual Fellowship in 2000. She has been Head of Department Medical Oncology and Haematology (including the Cancer Clinical Trials Unit) at the Royal Hobart Hospital (RHH) since 2009.  External to the RHH she is a member of the board of the Cancer Council of Tasmania, the Tasmanian Cancer Registry Advisory Group and the RHH Research Foundation Scientific and Advisory Committee.  She is a Tasmanian representative on the National Cancer Expert Reference Group (NCERG).  She has a strong interest in clinical research particularly in the areas of Neuro-Oncology, Malignant Haematology and Late Effects and has been the local PI for COGNO trials.   She is the immediate Past Chair of the Medical Oncology Group of Australia Incorporated (MOGA), the peak national body for the Australian Medical Oncology profession, having served as Chair (2014-2016) and is currently Treasurer. She has a successful track record of collaboration with AYA colleagues throughout Australia on a project of national importance assessing and documenting the Patterns of Care, treatment experiences and outcomes of all Australian AYA AML, ALL, CNS, bone and soft tissue sarcoma (National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC) project grant 1012250 and grants from CanTeen and The Kids’ Cancer Project).
 

Professor Terry Johns

 

Since November 2017, Prof Terrance Johns has been Professor of Paediatric Cancer Research and Program Head of the Telethon Kids Cancer Centre, where he also leads the Oncogenic Signalling Laboratory.

He completed his PhD on new therapies for melanoma in 1993 at Monash University. He then conducted his post-doctoral studies on the central nervous system, developing a new animal model that today remains the gold standard for multiple sclerosis research. In 1998, he moved to the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in Melbourne to head the Oncogenic Signalling Laboratory. The main focus of the laboratory was developing antibodies that target receptors important for the survival and growth of cancer, especially brain cancer. Notably, Prof Johns was a major contributor to the discovery of a brain-cancer-specific therapeutic antibody that was subsequently licensed to AbbVie. This antibody, mAb 806 (now known as ABT-414), is in phase 3 clinical trial for brain cancer patients. In 2008, Prof Johns returned to Monash University, where he continued to develop novel strategies for treating brain cancer. Alongside this work, Prof Johns is actively working with international collaborators and pharmaceutical partners to move new drugs into clinical trials for brain cancer.

Professor Johns has worked hard to bring the Australian brain cancer research community together and accelerate the drug translation process. In 2012, he founded the Brain Cancer Discovery Collaborative, an Australia-wide consortium of researchers and clinicians dedicated to ensuring that promising therapeutic discoveries are translated into the clinic for the treatment of patients with brain cancer. He has been a member of COGNO’s Management Committee since 2012 and its Scientific Advisory Committee since 2013.

 

 

Further details available shortly.

 

Ms Robyn Leonard

 

Ms Robyn Leonard has had a diverse career as a qualified nurse and midwife; television director and series producer; horticulturist and landscape architect. Her involvement in brain cancer related activities began in 2006 when her 28 year old daughter was diagnosed with a brain tumour. Her daughter's 6½ year journey through tumour progression, surgeries, radiation, various chemotherapies and DCVax clinical trial (USA) has given Robyn particular insight into what it is to be a young adult brain cancer sufferer.

Robyn has been an active brain cancer consumer representative with Cancer Council NSW, Cancer Institute NSW (CINSW) and COGNO, responsible for initiatives such as the inaugural Brain Cancer Action Week, CINSW Brain Tumour Nurse Education Module, the establishment of the Cancer Trials Consumer Network and the COGNO Consumer Advisory Panel.

In 2015, Robyn established Brain Cancer Biobanking Australia (BCBA) - a national initiative aimed at accelerating biospecimen access and sharing for biomedical research in brain cancer - and is the Founding Director of BCBA’s charity arm the Brain Cancer Collective. She is currently a member of the Australian Brain Cancer Mission Strategic Advisory Group, COGNO Management Committee and CINSW Oncology Group Neuro-Oncology.

 

 

Dr Jonathon Parkinson graduated from medicine at the University of Sydney in 1998. He undertook his advanced neurosurgical training at Royal North Shore Hospital, John Hunter Hospital, Sydney Children's Hospital, Prince of Wales Hospital and Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. During his specialist training, Dr Parkinson completed a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) at the Kolling Institute of Medical Research, University of Sydney where he studied the molecular biology of brain tumours. As well as his surgical work, Dr Parkinson is continuing his brain tumour research.
 
Further to his research interest in brain tumours, Dr Parkinson continues to develop his interest in their clinical management.  He is the current chair of the NSW Oncology Group (Neuro-oncology) as well as being on the management committee of the Australasian Neuro-oncology group, COGNO (Co-operative Trials Group for Neuro-oncology). Dr Parkinson is an important member of the multi-disciplinary team managing brain tumours across both the North Shore campus and on the Central Coast.
 
Dr Parkinson’s other interest is in teaching of neurosurgeons, being the Director of Training in Neurosurgery for the Royal North Shore and North Shore Private Hospital.
 
Dr Parkinson’s surgical interests include brain tumour surgery, skull base surgery and spine surgery of all types.  As well as his appointment at North Shore Private Hospital, Dr Parkinson is also a member of the Department of Neurosurgery at Royal North Shore Hospital.

 

 

Mrs Desma Spyridopoulos is an experienced entrepreneur with a demonstrated history of understanding technical concepts and translating them for a wider audience. Skilled in business planning, operational and research strategies, Desma has joined COGNO as the Consumer Advisory Panel (CAP) Chair in 2019.

Graduating from USYD with honors in Art History, she worked as an Art Historian and then went on to further studies with a Master of Commerce from UNSW. She focused her research skills on business and worked as an analyst in large companies and start-ups in Australia and the US. In 2000, Desma co-founded GLiNTECH, an IT Consultancy servicing large corporates. Desma has presented and written about the changing corporate environment and how it affects people’s lives. She is currently leading the strategy team focusing on Research and Development.

Desma Spyridopoulos’ interest in COGNO began when her father was diagnosed with a Stage 4 Glioblastoma in April 2016. She took time off work to help him through his treatment and spent time researching his condition and explaining the potential treatments and trials available to him. When he passed away, Desma was given the opportunity to be part of CAP where the members have all been touched by brain cancer and understand the consumer’s perspective. Desma believes that CAP play an important role, through their input and by providing consumer reviews for COGNO trials, safeguarding that the consumer is front of mind in the research for brain cancer.