Improved outcomes for patients with prostate cancer at Monash Health

Dr Arun Azad

Medical oncologist and researcher Dr Arun Azad is the recipient of a prestigious Victorian Cancer Agency Clinical Research Fellowship, announced last week by Minister for Health, the Hon Jill Hennessy MP.

The highly competitive Fellowship worth $800,000 over four years will enable to Dr Azad to characterise the effects of docetaxel chemotherapy on castration-sensitive prostate cancer.

 “In collaboration with Professor Gail Risbridger in the School of Biomedical Sciences, I will investigate whether docetaxel targets a population of ‘pre-existing’ castration-resistant cells,” said Dr Azad.

“This work may identity novel ways of making docetaxel more effective in castration-sensitive prostate cancer, paving the way for future clinical trials and better patient outcomes.”

An early-career medical oncologist and translational researcher in genitourinary malignancies, Dr Azad led cutting-edge work investigating mechanisms of therapeutic resistance and response in advanced prostate cancer patients through genomic analysis of circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) at the British Columbia Cancer Agency, Vancouver, Canada.

Dr Azad has played an active role in the development of 5 investigator-initiated clinical trials and been the recipient of over $1.5M in competitive funding including a prestigious CJ Martin Fellowship from the NH&MRC. His clinical and research activities have resulted in publications in high-impact journals including Journal of Clinical Oncology, European Urology and Lancet Oncology. He has also been the recipient of 15 competitive prizes and awards including Merit Awards at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Scientific Meeting and Genitourinary Cancers Symposium.

Dr Azad will take up appointments at Monash Health and Monash University’s School of Clinical Sciences (SCS) later this year to focus on pre-clinical and clinical translational research in genitourinary cancers.