Cancer imposes a social cost we estimate at over $1,000 billion on Australia, by reducing the quality and extent of life for a significant proportion of the population. The Cancer Council NSW (TCCN) has played a leading role in cancer control for more than 50 years.
The NSW Government established the Cancer Institute in 2004, and the Minister of Science and Medical Research has recently undertaken a review of how this changes the role of TCCN.
Pacific Strategy Partners has worked with TCCN on a pro-bono basis over the last few years and made a submission to the review.
We believe TCCN has a valuable role to play as a flexible private non-profit that can work alongside the Cancer Institute, and other cancer groups, to fill current and emerging gaps in the cancer control infrastructure.
While TCCNs $6m research investment is a small component of the Australian HMR investment, it has delivered a few high impact initiatives.
- Australian investment in HMR is growing at 11% p.a. reaching $2.2bn in 2003/4, of which $160m is spent directly on cancer research and $30m of this in NSW
- Research Impact. The Australian approach to investigator initiated research, while delivering high quality science, produces an investment profile that is weighted towards basic research, with little alignment to burden of disease or capability to systematically translate research into clinical practice
- TCCN investment has grown at 13% p.a. since 1999 to $6m in 2004, with investments that deliver a similar investment profile to the NHMRC, and has delivered some high impact initiatives, particularly in policy and practice focused research
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