Professor Stephen Ackland - Selected publications
Saltz L.B., Cox J.V., Blanke C, Rosen L.S., Fehrenbacher L, Moore M.J., Maroun J.A., Ackland S.P., Locker P.K., Pirotta N, Elfring G.L. and Miller L.L.. Irinotecan plus fluorouracil and leucovorin for metastatic colorectal cancer. N. Engl. J. Med., 343:905-914, 2000.
Metastatic colorectal cancer represents one of the most aggressive forms of malignant invasion. Many therapies have been devised to, in the first instance, cure disease spread and in the second act as palliative approach to extend the life of the affected individual. This study represented a significant improvement in survival for patients diagnosed with metastatic colorectal cancer.
Ackland S.P., Schilisky R.L. High-Dose Methotrexate - A Critical Reappraisal. Journal Of Clinical Oncology 5(12): 2017-2031, 1987.
High dose methotrexate (HDMTX) with leucovorin rescue was proposed to be superior to conventional doses of MTX. Unfortunately, this regimen has not been proven in any clinical situation except, perhaps, for treatment of osteogenic sarcoma and childhood acute leukemia. While HDMTX is an important component of effective treatment regimens for these diseases, its precise contribution to the success of these regimens remains undefined. This report highlights the paucity of data on the efficacy of this regimen and is therefore important as it signals that it should not be used for other types of cancer therapy apart from those two situations listed above.
Ackland S.P., Ratain M.J., Vogelzang N.J., et al. Pharmacokinetics And Pharmacodynamics Of Long-Term Continuous-Infusion Doxorubicin. Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics 45(4):340-347, 1989.
The demonstration of the pharmacodynamic relationship of continuous infusion of doxorubicin highlights the potential importance of pharmacologic data collection in ongoing attempts to predict the clinical effects of anticancer drugs. This report is important as it highlights the necessity to fully understand the dynamics of doxorubicin infusion in patients with advanced cancers.
van Laar J.A.M., Rustum Y.M., Ackland S.P., et al. Comparison of 5-fluoro-2 '-deoxyuridine with 5-fluorouracil and their role in the treatment of colorectal cancer. European Journal Of Cancer 34(3):296-306, 1998.
Despite more than 30 years of intensive studies on new drugs against advanced colorectal cancer, the fluoropyrimidines remain the drugs of choice for systemic treatment. This article describes differences and similarities between the efficacy of 5-FU and 5-FdUrd suggesting that more is needed to be done to prove the superiority of 5-FdUrd.
Esteem factors
- Head of the HMRI Cancer Program, Director of Department of Medical Oncology, Newcastle Mater Misericordiae Hospital and Conjoint Professor of Faculty of Health, The University of Newcastle.
- Ackland is a member of the scientific advisory committees of both the Australasian Gastrointestinal Trials Group and the ANZ Breast Cancer Trials Group and has been principal investigator of several national clinical trials and one international clinical trial.
- Ackland has obtained more than AU$ 3.2m in grants since the year 2000, from the National Health & Medical Research Council, Cancer Institute NSW, The University of Newcastle and the Australian Research Council.
- HERA (Herceptin adjuvant) trial completed and published, showed that addition of Herceptin (trastuzumab) to standard chemotherapy significantly reduces the risk of disease recurrence for women with early-stage HER2-positive breast cancer by 46%. (NEJM Oct 2005). Completion and publication of a large Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) in esophageal cancer (Lancet Oncol 2005).
- Reporting of a large RCT demonstrating that 6 months’ androgen deprivation given before and during radiotherapy improves the outlook of patients with locally advanced prostate cancer (Lancet Oncol 2005). Design and conduct the largest ever RCT in prostate cancer (RADAR, 1000 patients). Development of an online quality assurance system for the treatment of cancer using radiotherapy.