TYPE: New Zealand Research Study
STATUS: In Follow Up
GCF CONTRIBUTION: $50,000

Professor Peter Shepherd and his team at the University of Auckland, were awarded $50,000 for a second year to study a form of colorectal cancer which is difficult to treat normally. A drug combination used to treat melonoma will be trialed in the laboratory as a pre-clinical experiment to determine if there is any tumour response using the drugs vemurafenib and axitinib. This funding is thanks to The Estate of Ernest Hyam Davis & The Ted and Mollie Carr Endowment Trust proudly managed by Perpetual Guardian.

Findings

The results of this vital research indicate that the combination of drugs trialled in laboratory conditions are more successful than existing treatments, in treating the 10% of colon cancers that are driven by mutations in the BRAF gene.

Professor Shepherd said “These result support previous work funded by the Gut Cancer Foundation and provides solid evidence to support human clinical trials of these two drugs together to be used, specifically in patients whose tumours contain a BRAF mutation. This represents about 10% of all colorectal cancers and is important as people with such tumours have worse clinical outcomes and hence the need for improved treatment.

Click here for a detailed overview of the research project and its findings.
GCF is grateful to the Sir Ernest Davis Estate proudly managed by Perpetual Guardian as sole trustee of his charitable trust, for their support of this research.