Three of our newest trial staff keeping our trials on track!
Part of our mission this year is to put faces to names and showcase the incredible staff working at QCGC Research. This month we introduce three more staff members who directly work with patients on our research trials and share their reflections from the recent Australia New Zealand Gynaecological Oncology Group (ANZGOG) Annual Scientific Meeting.
Juliet joined QCGC Research in 2022 and is a passionate and experienced Clinical Women’s Health Registered Nurse with almost fifteen years of clinical practice at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital (RBWH). Juliet is employed at QCGC Research as lead Research Nurse for the MOST (Measure of Ovarian Symptoms & Treatment) Trial, recruiting patients with epithelial ovarian cancer who have had chemotherapy treatment at either RBWH or North Lakes Hospital. Juliet also continues in her Clinical Nurse role in the RBWH Gynaecology Ward.
“This was my very first time attending the ANZGOG conference and I absolutely enjoyed the whole three day event,” Juliet said.
Juliet particularly enjoyed learning more about the benefits of the Teal support program and how beneficial it is for those women who have been diagnosed with ovarian cancer here in Australia. The Teal Support Program is a free telehealth outreach program supporting women with ovarian cancer throughout their diagnosis, treatment and beyond. The main aim of the program is to provide continuity of care when the women are not regularly seeing their treating team and focus on areas of care where there are unmet needs.
Juliet thoroughly enjoyed Medical Oncologist Dr Janine Lombard’s presentation that gave a more in-depth insight about “Symptom monitoring and management on maintenance therapies for ovarian cancer” that are currently available in Australia and understand the role that Bevacizumab and Parp Inhibitors play in the post treatment 1st line treatment of ovarian cancers.
Brianna joined the Queensland Centre for Gynaecological Cancer in January 2023 as a Clinical Trial Coordinator for the ENDO-3 trial and is primarily responsible for screening, recruitment, participant management, and data entry. Brianna is passionate about improving public health outcomes for women and making cancer treatments more effective, tolerable and accessible.
“This was my first time attending the ANZGOG conference. It was a really valuable opportunity for me to learn more about the different gynaecological cancers and treatment options since I am new to the field. I really enjoyed meeting new colleagues from Australia and around the world.
One of my favourite events was Rene Pareja’s very entertaining and informative keynote presentation on the history of cervical cancer. I found it remarkable that today cervical cancer is an almost entirely preventable and treatable disease but it continues to cause such high mortality rates globally, particularly in low-income countries, due to a lack of access to screening tests and treatment.”
Maryam is a Clinical Research Coordinator with QCGC Research and has approximately ten years of experience assisting and coordinating various health-related research studies. She is a registered researcher and has a PhD in health science. She has always been passionate about women’s health and is proud to be part of a team working to improve the outcomes of women experiencing Gynaecological Cancer.
This was Maryam’s first ANZGOG conference too and she found the three day event incredibly valuable as it highlighted the importance of research and clinical trials to develop new treatments and improve outcomes for women diagnosed with gynaecological cancer.