The Cancer Elimination Collaboration develops and leverages partnerships to accelerate the elimination of all cancers.
Our interim goal is to cut cancer mortality rates in Australia by 50% by 2050 (“50 by 50”) and support cancer control in partner countries.
The World Health Organization (WHO) strategy for eliminating cervical cancer shows that cancer elimination is feasible – for cervical cancer and, as evidence accrues, applying integrated strategies for the improved control and elimination of other cancers. How soon cancers are eliminated will depend on how quickly established and emerging technologies can be deployed, and how quickly the existing gaps in the evidence can be addressed.
Rapid translation of evidence-based approaches will also be the key to averting deaths from cancer, aselimination strategies and evidence evolve.
Our aim is to accelerate progress towards eliminating cancers by working with partners to:
EPICC is a four-year initiative (2024-2028) supported by the Australian Government and the Minderoo Foundation.
The program responds to the WHO 3-pillar global strategy to eliminate cervical cancer, bringing together a consortium of leading Australian cancer research and implementation partners with global partners and Ministries of Health in the Indo-Pacific region to advance their national cervical cancer elimination strategies.
The program provides a comprehensive suite of tailored, evidence-based support, working with governments to augment existing plans and priorities.
Partner countries include Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, Timor-Leste, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Tuvalu, Fiji and Nauru.
The Elimination Partnership in the Indo-Pacific for Cervical Cancer (EPICC) consortium is led by the University of Sydney and includes the Australian Centre for the Prevention of Cervical Cancer (ACPCC), the Kirby Institute at UNSW Sydney, Family Planning Australia (FPA), the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS), and UNITAID.
Consortium partners lead activities in their areas of expertise.
The EPICC program also collaborates with global and national partners with expertise and networks in cancer treatment, secondary prevention of cervical cancer, and HPV vaccination.
Global implementing partners include; the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), the International Gynaecologic Cancer Society (IGCS), and the National Cancer Institute (NCI/NHI).
The Cervical Cancer Elimination Planning Tool (EPT) was developed by our team at the University of Sydney and the International Agency for Research on Cancer, with funding from Cancer Research UK’s International Cancer Prevention programme.
The tool was developed as part of the work of the International Partnership for Resilience in Cancer Systems (I-PaRCS).
It received strategic input from an international expert reference group and builds on prior work by the Cervical Cancer Elimination Modelling Consortium (CCEMC), which supported the 2020 WHO strategic plan.
The EPT incorporates updated estimates from the Policy1-Cervix model, developed over 23 years by the University of Sydney team, to evaluate the impact of HPV vaccination, screening, and treatment in low-resource settings.
The International Partnership for Resilience in Cancer Systems (I-PaRCS) is an initiative co-led by the Cancer Elimination Collaboration at the University of Sydney and the IARC Initiative for Resilience in Cancer Control (IRCC) which aims to bring together the global community to support decision-making in cancer control.
The partnership was originally formed as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, but has since broadened and evolved to address a wide range of themes related to the ongoing resilience of cancer systems.
Furthermore, this partnership connects teams from various countries, in a collaborative effort to strengthen cancer systems’ response to existing and emerging challenges, such as infectious diseases, conflicts, natural disasters, and other disruptions.
Since 2018, the Western Australia Country Health Service’s Command Centre (WACHS CC), a virtual clinical hub, has provided more than 160,000 video consultations to 88 emergency sites state-wide and have avoided hospital transfers for 74% of patients seen by their service.
This project looks to understand the economic costs, and service access benefits, of embedding the service into additional regional communities.
Funding: Digital Health Cooperative Research Centre
This partnership project involves working with multiple stakeholders to codesign and implement heart health literacy solutions. It aims to reduce access barriers to preventive Heart Health Checks in primary care and close equity gaps in cardiovascular disease outcomes.
This includes evidence-based decision support for GPs and patients, behaviour change tools for people with lower health literacy, conversation guides to facilitate culturally appropriate shared decision making with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, integration with GP and Primary Health Network programs and software systems, and testing new models of care for targeted risk screening in general practice.
The interventions have improved both GP and patient knowledge of CVD risk; increased healthy lifestyle behaviours, risk factor assessment and MBS billing for Heart Health Checks; reached over 100,000 people in the research phase and over 500,000 since being integrated into new guidelines and clinical risk assessment tools.
Funding: National Health and Medical Research Council, Heart Foundation, Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, Medical Research Future Fund via Prevention Centre, Department of Health and Aged Care.
Following is a snapshot of current research projects, in which the CEC is involved in either a leadership or a supporting role. For information about any of these projects, please email cec.coordinating-team@sydney.edu.au
Lung cancer
Gastrointestinal cancers
Breast cancer
Cervical/HPV
Other gynaecological cancers
Cancer prevention
Health services
First Nations
Consumer engagement
Communications
Mailing address
Level 5, Moore College
No.1 King Street Newtown
The University of Sydney, NSW, 2006
