“In my long career, I’ve never seen progress as fast as is happening now,” medical oncologist Professor Paul Craft AM said. “Treatments [for cancer] are changing, improving, every year, every six months. It’s hard to keep up sometimes!”

That progress is due to clinical trials, which the Federal Government defines as “research investigations in which people volunteer to test new treatments, interventions or tests as a means to prevent, detect, treat or manage various diseases or medical conditions”.

Today, 20 May, celebrates International Clinical Trials Day, which recognises medical researchers and patients involved in clinical trials, and celebrates breakthroughs in medicine, treatment, and therapies.

As clinical director at the Canberra Hospital’s Cancer Centre, and associate professor in medical oncology at the Australian National University, Professor Craft has been involved in many clinical trials in the ACT.

The Canberra Hospital and the ANU, Professor Craft said, are conducting a range of research activities from high-level drug discovery studies, where novel agents are sought, to testing new treatments in clinical trials, and collaborating with the University of Canberra on supportive care for men with prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in Australia. One in six men will develop the illness by the time they are 85. Last year, more than 24,200 men were diagnosed with the illness. Each year in the ACT, there are 400 new cases each year, and 40 to 50 deaths.

“It is quite a big burden on the community,” Professor Craft said.

But, he emphasises, the survival rates are good. If diagnosed early, it has one of the highest five-year survival rates, around 95 per cent.

“A lot of men in our community who have been affected by prostate cancer are alive and well, but might have side-effects of treatment,” Professor Craft said.

Other urinogenital cancers (such as penile, bladder, and kidney cancers) are less common, but more dangerous. Testicular cancer is predominantly a disease in young adult men; while it has a high cure rate (more than 90 per cent), it can require intensive treatment (including chemotherapy and radical surgery), Professor Craft said.

Last year, Professor Ross Hannan’s group at the John Curtin School of Medical Research, ANU, in collaboration with the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne, was awarded a grant of more than $1 million by the US Department of Defence to develop a new class of drugs for patients with advanced prostate cancer. The drugs, PMR-116, suppress protein synthesis, which cancer cells need to thrive. Professor Craft said the “cutting-edge” treatment was “an amazing breakthrough”. While the initial trials will be run in Melbourne, Professor Craft hopes some trials will take place at the Canberra Hospital.

The Canberra Hospital is running several clinical trials in prostate cancer: integrating immunotherapy into metastatic prostate cancer, and improving the use of hormonal treatment for recurrent prostate cancer.

In the next four weeks, the radiotherapy department will open a trial looking at a new form of radiation treatment for men with non-metastatic prostate cancer. The technique is designed to be more effective and have fewer side-effects than conventional radiation treatment, Professor Craft said.

In collaboration with the University of Canberra, the hospital is running clinical trials in pre-habilitation: men undergoing surgery for prostate cancer become fit before the surgery, rather than just focusing on recovery afterwards.

“Getting in a better circumstance to get through the surgery without too many side-effects has been shown to be an advantage,” Professor Craft said.

In the longer term, he looks forward to a new $7 million research facility opening at the Canberra Region Cancer Centre next year. The facility will contain a research lab and a clinical trial space, and be associated with a wellbeing hub and pharmacy.

• New cancer research facility for Canberra (30 January)

“Doing trials in the Cancer Centre has all sorts of benefits,” Professor Craft said. “Patients on trial are guaranteed of getting the cutting-edge latest treatment. Even when it’s a randomised trial, and there is a control of so-called standard treatment, it’s the best standard treatment available in the world, because the trial’s been written very carefully to maximise the benefits for the patients enrolled in it. On the experimental arm of trials, the patients will get access to drugs that aren’t easily available generally already, known to have some benefits.

“That’s a win-win situation for people enrolling in clinical trials. It’s good for us because we get access to the latest treatments for our patients.”

Professor Craft said he is looking to increase clinical trials, and extend them into rural NSW, whose habitants sometimes miss out on opportunities to participate in clinical research.

“We’ve a lot of potential to build a bigger research effort, which translates in a whole lot of ways to better quality of care,” he said. “When clinical staff – nurses, doctors, and specialists – are involved in clinical research, they get a culture of inquiry, curiosity, and excellence. It lifts the whole tenor of the institution.”

Clinical trials in other cancers, such as lung or breast cancer, are underway at the Canberra Hospital.

Nationally, the Australian and New Zealand Urogenital and Prostate Cancer Trials Group (ANZUP) brings together professional disciplines and groups involved in researching and treating ‘below-the-belt’ (penile, bladder, kidney, prostate, and testicular) cancers to conduct high-quality research.

ANZUP completed a number of big trials that altered practice in prostate cancer, Professor Craft observed. For instance, earlier and more accurate use of hormonal treatments invented in the last decade leads to long-term benefits for men with more advanced prostate cancer. Those drugs are now available for men with recurrent and advanced prostate cancer much earlier than they were even a year ago; the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee approved them to go on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Schedule.

“Treatments have been improved and refined through clinical trials, and treatments that we have available are used in a more accurate and beneficial way than they were before,” Professor Craft said. “It leads to proven better outcomes: longer survival, better quality of life with better cancer control. Those are the sorts of outcomes we’re looking for from clinical trials.”