CCB Consumer Advocacy Group

Consumer advocates provide a powerful voice to ensure the successful outcomes of cancer research by working together with scientists to make decisions about health research priorities, policy and practice.

It is an active partnership that is sensitive to changing needs and priorities. By working with consumer advocates, researchers are better equipped to identify the real needs of the community that can be addressed through research projects. Fundamentally, it is a commitment to conducting cancer research that is with the community rather than to or for the community.

Consumer Advocate Success Stories

Steven Pendry: “Advancing a new targeted antibody to combat pancreatic cancer” – Funded by Pankind, 2024, to Prof Claudine Bonder

Greg Johnston: “Advanced pre-clinical evaluation of sphingosine kinase 1-targeting agents as a therapy for acute myeloid leukaemia” – Funded by Cancer Council NSW, 2024, to Prof Stuart Pitson (CIA) and A/Prof Jason Powell (CIB)

Martin Adams: “New approaches to enhance immunotherapy for brain tumours” – Funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council, 2023 Ideas Grants, to Prof Stuart Pitson (CIA), Dr Melinda Tea (CIB) and Dr Briony Gliddon (CIC)

Trish Fuss: “Targeting lethal metastases: finding new targets in the tumour/microenvironment interface” – Funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council, 2023 Synergy Grants, to a national CI team including Prof Michael Samuel

Trish Fuss: A study to investigate how a mechanism in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) allows cancer cells to readily spread around the body (Read more Here) – Funded by The Hospital Research Foundation/Australian Breast Cancer Research, 2023, to A/Prof Philip Gregory

Trish Fuss and Paula Nagel: Fellowship to investigate a potential new class of therapies to slow or stop the spread of breast cancer – Funded by The Hospital Research Foundation/Australian Breast Cancer Research, 2023, to Prof Michael Samuel

Trish Fuss and Tania Jolley: “A novel model to investigate the contribution of fat metabolism to breast cancer” - Funded by The Hospital Research Foundation, 2022, to Prof Sharad Kumar (CIA) and Dr Loretta Dorstyn (CIB)

Trish Fuss and Paula Nagel: “Uncovering how breast cancer recruits healthy cells to grow and spread” – Funded by Worldwide Cancer Research, 2022, to Prof Michael Samuel

Will McDonald (Channel 9 News) shared his journey with prostate cancer which helped fund the research program of Associate Professor Phillip Gregory via funding from The Hospital Research Foundation (2018) and then the NHMRC (2019-2021) https://hospitalresearch.org.au/news/latest-news/channel-9-news-presenter-will-mcdonalds-cancer-fight/ and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7YeVUzigB8

Resources:

Principles for Consumer Involvement in Research Funded by the Medical Research Future Fund

About the CCB Consumer Advocacy Group

The CCB Consumer Advocacy Group (CCB CAG), co-chaired by Professor Claudine Bonder and Ms Paula Nagel AM, has been established to better connect our research with community experiences of cancer and consumer expectations.

The CCB CAG is a group of community volunteers who, from time to time, are invited to add value to the work of our members by:

Sharing care experiences with researchers from a patient or carer perspective
Providing support to influence health and legislative policy
Commenting on the design and development of cancer research projects
Helping CCB to ensure that the language we use in research information for the community is easy to understand and appropriate
Raising awareness and lobbying the government for research funding

Who can be a consumer advocate?

Anyone with a personal experience of cancer can volunteer to become a consumer advocate. Consumer advocates can be:

cancer survivors
patients with cancer
carers
family members
members of the community that work with those affected by cancer

Interested in joining the CCB Consumer Advocacy Group?

You do not need to have had experience in cancer research to volunteer as training is provided. There are flexible options for participating, so you can nominate the level of involvement and time commitment that works best for you.

If you are interested in applying to join the CCB Consumer Advocacy Group you can: