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Cancer research is vital, not only for understanding more about the disease, but for developing better ways of treating it. Clinical trials are the main method for discovering new treatment options or drugs might be more effective than the current options.
Our team is here to listen and support you.
A clinical trial is a type of cancer research that aims to show whether a new way of tackling cancer works better than the traditional model. In a clinical trial, people volunteer to help test the new treatment option or method, or to participate in research that compares two methods of treatment to see which one is more effective.
By the time clinical trials involve people, researchers have usually already spent years studying the treatment they’re hoping to test. At this point, the clinical trial is developed into a series of stages or ‘phases’ – usually four.
The outcome of each phase determines whether the trial can continue into the next. For example, there is currently a lot of interest in a drug called fenbendazole, which early animal studies suggest could be beneficial as an anti-cancer drug. Fenbendazole cancer clinical trials have not yet been carried out with human participants.
Every clinical trial has a set of criteria attached that determines whether someone is eligible to take part. While most clinical trials conduct clinical cancer research with people who currently have cancer, there are others that might include cancer survivors, or even friends
and family of people with cancer, depending on what is being researched or tested. To participate in a trial, you must be over 18 or have the permission of a parent or guardian.
Clinical trials need to represent a diverse section of the community, so it’s important they have people from all walks of life, gender, ethnicity and age.
The nature of the clinical trial in question will determine where it takes place, whether that is a hospital, research facility, your doctor’s office or even your own home. Australian cancer trials are underway all over the country.
There are a number of questions you should ask before agreeing to participate in a clinical trial, as well as certain information the research team is legally required to provide you with before you can officially take part.
In writing, researchers should tell you:
Some of the questions you might like to ask the research team can include:
For researchers to be confident that there were no bias or other factors that could impact the accuracy of the trial results, they often perform a type of trial called a randomised controlled trial (RCT).
This means that they select people to be involved at random, while ‘controlling’ for other factors. What this means in practice is that often an RCT will be split into two groups: those who receive the treatment, and those who form the ‘control group’, in which they’ve received either the existing standard of treatment, or a placebo.
Some of the other professionals you might have contact with in a clinical trial include:
Many of the biggest innovations in cancer treatments have come out of clinical trials. They are crucial for the development of new treatment techniques, as well as for ensuring that current treatments are still best practice.
On a personal level, deciding whether a clinical trial is the right path for you will depend on several factors. You need to weigh up the benefits of disadvantages. For some people, the traditional treatment option feels like the best path forward, while others are more driven to pursue newer options, even if those results aren’t yet fully proven. Consider the potential side-effects and other impacts as part of your decision-making process.
The innovations and treatment options to have come out of clinical trials have significantly improved the life-expectancy for people with cancer over the past 30 years.
Dr Dishan (Dish) Herath, Western Health’s Head of Cancer Services in Victoria, says: “There’s good evidence that as an overall cohort, patients who go on clinical trials have better outcomes than patients who are not on clinical trials. So, we think it’s in the best interests of our patients,”
It’s common to have to wait for surgery. The wait time depends on the type of cancer, its stage, the surgery required, and the hospital’s schedule. The waiting list is usually organised by how urgently surgery is needed, so people are treated in turn but without waiting for periods of time that could be harmful. While most cancer surgeries are elective, they are typically prioritised as urgent, meaning they are recommended to take place within 30 days of you and your surgeon agreeing on the procedure.
To participate in a trial, you must be over 18 or have the permission of a parent or guardian. Clinical trials need to represent a diverse section of the community, so it’s important they have people from all walks of life, gender, ethnicity and age
Joining a clinical trial in Australia is free for all residents and citizens. You should never be asked to pay to join a clinical trial.
While it’s natural to have concerns over whether it’s safe to be involved in a clinical trial for cancer research, it’s important to understand how much work goes into making sure they are as safe as possible for the participants.
Before a clinical trial can even begin, it must be approved by an ethics review board, and as part of that process the researchers involved are required to identify possible side effects, as well as how they will minimise them. You should be fully informed about all side-effects going into the trial, which will help you make an informed choice.
If you’re participating in a randomised controlled trial, in some instances one group of people will receive a placebo, while another group receives the treatment being studied. There is no way to know whether you will be part of the group that receives the placebo or not, and this is because it’s crucial for the study results to be as accurate as possible.
A blinded trial is one in which the participants aren’t aware of which treatment they’re receiving. Some trials are ‘double blind’, meaning the researchers aren’t aware of which group receives which treatment, at least until the end of the study.
