Blog Archives

Zobaida Edib's PhD Completion

3/17/2025

Congratulations to Zobaida Edib whose thesis The development of an infertility risk prediction tool for young women with breast cancer was recently accepted. Dr Edib was supervised by A/Prof Michelle Peate, A/Prof Yasmin Jayasinghe, Prof Martha Hickey, K Nguyen & A Gorelik.
http://hdl.handle.net/11343/355786
https://minerva-access.unimelb.edu.au/items/6bbe48be-888e-40c8-bdba-d3cc2e3836ca

The potential impact of cancer treatments on fertility is a high priority for young breast cancer patients. Fertility concerns can influence treatment decisions, with some patients choosing to forgo recommended treatments due to the risk of infertility or not adhering to recommended endocrine therapy in an attempt to preserve their fertility. Current risk prediction models to predict likely fertility outcomes after breast cancer treatments are imprecise and have limited applicability in clinical practice. Hence, there is an unmet need for a resource to inform young women of their personalised risk of infertility following breast cancer treatment.

Dorcas Serwaa Presents at National Cancer Survivorship Conference

3/13/2025

Dorcas Serwaa presented her work "Managing Menopausal Symptoms in Cancer Survivors: A Qualitative Study of the Perceived Facilitators and Barriers to the Use of an Online Patient-driven Stepped-Care Platform" at the National Cancer Survivorship Conference, hosted by Clinical Oncology Society of Australia, 2025.

Publication News - Jacqueline Hunter

3/13/2025

PhD student Jacqueline Hunter is first author on the research article Delivering Trio Germline Whole Genome Sequencing to Patients Newly Diagnosed With Childhood Cancer: Healthcare Professionals' Perspectives of the PREDICT Study which was published in Cancer Medicine on 14 February 2025.

Children diagnosed with cancer are increasingly receiving personalised care, informed by genetic testing which shows their predisposition to the disease.

This can help families understand the causes of the cancer, guide treatment, and inform future health decisions. But healthcare professionals report multiple logistical and resourcing issues are hindering the rollout of such testing, new research published in Cancer Medicine shows.

Then there are the potential negative psychosocial impacts on families, says lead author PhD student Jacqueline Hunter, from University of Melbourne Department of Obstetrics, Gynaecology & Newborn Health and UNSW's School of Clinical Medicine and the Behavioural Sciences Unit at the Kids Cancer Centre, Sydney Children's Hospital.

"The potential psychological impact of uncovering a heritable cancer risk is a significant concern for families. Health professional can also be deterred from offering such testing, due to fear of causing families additional distress at an already difficult time," she said.

"To ensure the routine integration of this important testing, we need targeted strategies to tackle logistical challenges and reduce potential stress for families. The findings of this study provide important insights that will help this testing become part of routine care for children with cancer.” Hunter, J.D., Hetherington, K., Wakefield, C.E., Tucker, K.M., McGill, B.C., Grant, A., Fuentes-Bolanos, N.A., Padhye, B., Gleeson, M., Bhatia, K. and Peate, M. (2025), Delivering Trio Germline Whole Genome Sequencing to Patients Newly Diagnosed With Childhood Cancer: Healthcare Professionals' Perspectives of the PREDICT Study. Cancer Med, 14: e70680. https://doi.org/10.1002/cam4.70680