Premier’s prized research

For over 15 years, Professor John Hopper and his associates at the Melbourne School of Global and Population Health, with colleagues throughout Australia and New Zealand, had been working on a large-scale project: the Australasian Colorectal Cancer Family Registry. This is part of an international consortium, the Colon Cancer Family Registry that is now led by Associate Professor Mark Jenkins also at the Melbourne School of Global and Population Health at the University of Melbourne. Meanwhile, Myanmar-based Dr Win was realising his career interests lay in the field of medical research. The University of Melbourne was his chosen destination. 

Dr Win’s supervisor, Associate Professor Mark Jenkins, explains it this way.

“Over the years, we had built up a comprehensive registry of thousands of families where colorectal cancer was prevalent. Through the generosity of such families, who donated their time to answer questionnaires and give interviews on their lifestyle and cancer history, as well as giving blood samples, we have conducted genetic testing to establish the world’s largest resource to study colorectal cancer genetics. It takes a long time and a great deal of effort to collect this data and throughout this process, we were funded by various agencies such as the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and the National Institute of Health (NIH) in the USA.”

Dr Win’s arrival in Melbourne was important to the next stage of this research. 

“We recognised something special in Dr Win – in his skills as a genetic epidemiologist and his experiences as both a clinician and a researcher. 

“The sorts of extensive data we work with needs thorough analysis. We believed he had the ability to use this data to advance our knowledge and perhaps change the course of treatment and prevention for families where colorectal cancer prevails,” Associate Professor Jenkins says.

Dr Win’s Win’s research has focused on determining why some people have a very high risk of colorectal cancer while others have a very low risk. 

“We know that colorectal cancers are more prevalent in Western countries and while we can guess, we still don’t know why. Lifestyle factors and genetics are some of the indicators.

“It is important to research causes for colorectal cancer because the mortality rate for it is high if not detected early (it is almost twice as high as that of breast cancer). My overall goal is to work out how to provide people with their own risk of colorectal cancer. To begin with, I wanted to start with people who have a genetic mutation.

“One of my most important findings so far is that people who have a genetic mutation for colorectal cancer are also at increased risk of breast cancer.” 

Some of Dr Win’s findings have impacted directly to clinical settings such as familial cancer centres where genetic links in families are dealt with. Associate Professor Jenkins also believes Dr Win’s findings provide surgeons with much needed information to help them decide how to operate on colorectal cancer for people with a genetic mutation.

“We know that when a colorectal cancer is identified and located in a person with a high-risk mutation, patients and their surgeons can be in a dilemma on how much bowel they should remove because there is a chance that a second cancer will occur in remaining bowel.” 

Dr Aung Ko Win won the Premier’s Award from a field of highly talented, young, up-and-coming Victorian health and medical researchers. The top prize recognises achievement, celebrates creativity and acknowledges excellence across all fields of health or medical research.

While working at the University of Melbourne, Dr Win was awarded a research scholarship by the Cancer Council Victoria for his work on the development of a comprehensive model for colorectal cancer risk prediction.

This opportunity again allowed him to fine-tune and build on his findings.

“Colorectal cancer is the second most commonly diagnosed cancer in Australia with around one in 20 Australians diagnosed with the disease at some stage in their life. About 14,000 Australians are diagnosed with colorectal cancer every year and about 4,000 die from the disease each year. This cancer accounts for the second highest number of cancer-related deaths in Australia,” Dr Win says. 

The University’s researchers scooped the pool of nominations for the Premier’s Award this year, with the three “runners up” to receive commendations also conducting their studies at Melbourne. 

They were: 

Microbiology’s Dr Patricia Illing, whose project revealed why some people develop life-threatening allergies after receiving treatment for serious conditions such as epilepsy and AIDS.

Bio 21’s Dr Lin Wai Hung, whose PhD looked at aspects of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s that could be used as targets for therapy.

Dr Michelle Boyle from the Burnet Institute and Centre for Immunology at the University, whose PhD project developed a new method to isolate the parasite that causes the majority of malaria morbidity and mortality globally.

www.mdhs.unimelb.edu.au