The Research Advisory Committee comprises a group of outstanding individuals with significant experience and expertise to oversee the Research Program. With PCFA's National Board input, oversight and approval, the Research Advisory Committee is responsible for:
- Advising on the strategic direction for the program as a whole and reviewing this strategy annually. This includes identifying areas of prostate cancer research which are under-investigated (especially where there are insufficient applications) and developing strategies to correct that imbalance.
- Acting as the over-arching governing body for PCFA's Research Strategy
History
Since 1999, PCFA has been committed to providing a transparent, well-organised and academically rigorous avenue for the funding of worthwhile research projects focused on prostate cancer. Initially the Research Advisory Committee, then known as the Research Committee, was chaired by Professor Roger Reddell (1999 - 2003), followed by Professor Robert Baxter (2003-2006).
PCFA established its annual grant program in 2007 and appointed the first Research Advisory Committee Chairman, Professor John Mills. Professor Mills stepped down as Chair in October, 2013.
In 2015, the PCFA National Board appointed Professor Bruce Armstrong as the chair of RAC.
Current Members
Professor Lisa Butler, Chair of RAC
Professor Lisa Butler is a Cancer Council Principal Research Fellow and Prostate Cancer Group Leader in the South Australian Immunogenomics Cancer Institute (SAiGENCI), at the University of Adelaide. She is also Director of the Solid Tumour Program at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI). She holds a Ph.D. in cancer biology from the University of Adelaide with postdoctoral training in preclinical drug development at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre in New York. Prof Butler’s research focuses on novel approaches to target androgen signalling therapeutically in prostate cancer, and on biomarker discovery in drug development. She has established translational research programs that leverage her unique preclinical models involving primary clinical samples, prostate biobanking and proof-of-concept clinical trials.
Mr Alan Barlee
Mr Alan Barlee has been a Stage 4 prostate cancer survivor for over 15 years, following his diagnosis with intermediate-risk prostate cancer. His treatments have included radical prostatectomy, first generation androgen deprivation therapy and early access pre-chemo abiraterone - the latter reducing his cancer to a state of dormancy progressively over the past five years.
Alan is a strong advocate for prostate cancer patient empowerment through expanded knowledge. He regularly mentors other patients and survivors, helping them to frame relevant questions relating to treatment options and side effects to their respective medical specialists. Alan serves on the steering committees of the national Advanced Prostate Cancer Support Group and the Geelong Prostate Support Group. His advocacy has included representations with others on behalf of advanced prostate cancer patients to Government, the PBAC, drug manufacturers and to PCFA.
After qualifying in Applied Chemistry, Alan had an exciting 32-year career that included research, manufacturing, general management and fellowship of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute. Over the subsequent eight years he worked in the emerging solar energy industry, both in business and on the executive of the national industry association. He is a member of The Australian Greens and has served as a Victorian State Councillor, as well as serving as Treasurer on Geelong Sustainability Group's Executive Committee. Alan has continuing involvement in sport aviation, sailing and travel.
Professor Daniel Galvão
Professor Daniel Galvão is Professor of Exercise Science and Director of the Exercise Medicine Research Institute, Edith Cowan University, Perth, Western Australia, and a Cancer Council Western Australia Research Fellow. He holds an MSc in Clinical Exercise Science from the University of Queensland and a PhD in Exercise Science from Edith Cowan University. Professor Galvão’s research program focuses on applications of exercise as medicine for the prevention and management of cancer treatment side effects and survival and has received funding from NHMRC, Cancer Australia and the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia. His research has been published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, European Urology and Nature Reviews Urology and he has co-authored the Exercise and Sports Science Australia position stand in exercise and cancer (2009) and the American College of Sports Medicine’s exercise guidelines for cancer survivors (2010).
Professor Jeff Dunn AO
Jeff Dunn is the University of Southern Queensland’s Professor of Social and Behavioural Science and Chair of Cancer Survivorship. He is the Immediate Past President of the Geneva based Union for International Cancer Control and Chief of Mission at Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia. In 2024 Professor Dunn was ranked by Stanford University as among the top 2% of scientists worldwide for oncology and clinical medicine confirming his status as an international leader in the social and behavioural aspects of cancer. Over the course of his 30-year career, Professor Dunn has pioneered patient-centred care, working across disciplines to build community capacity in cancer control, influencing local, national and global health policies and programs. His research has been published in more than 200 publications including peer reviewed manuscripts, books, chapter and government reports and Scival (2024) includes Prof Dunn as top three global high impact researchers in prostate cancer survivorship and quality of life. He serves as Deputy Chair and Board Member of Queensland’s West Moreton Hospital and Health Service and is Chair of the Board’s Research Committee. Previously Professor Dunn has served as President of the Asia Pacific Organisation for Cancer Prevention and Secretary for the International Psycho-oncology Society and CEO of the Cancer Council Queensland and the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia.
In 2014 Professor Dunn was appointed an Officer in the Order of Australia for distinguished service to medical administration through leadership of cancer control organisations and promotion of innovative and integrated cancer care programs.
Dr Kate Mahon
Dr Kate Mahon is a clinician scientist with a special interest in metastatic prostate cancer. Kate is a Medical Oncologist at Chris O'Brien Lifehouse and is heavily involved in prostate cancer clinical trials. She holds a PhD in mechanisms of chemotherapy resistance in advanced prostate cancer from the University of Sydney and is a post-doctoral prostate cancer research fellow at the Garvan Institute for Medical Research. Her ongoing research is primarily focused on implementing effective biomarkers into clinical practice in advanced prostate cancer. Kate's expertise in biomarker development and prostate cancer biology coupled with her clinical work affords knowledge vital to developing clinically relevant research questions whilst allowing opportunities to translate laboratory findings back to the bedside.
Will McDonald
Will McDonald joined Nine News in 2004, working as a reporter & producer. In 2010, he started presenting the 6pm weekend bulletin for Nine News, and now the afternoon weekday news. Born in Adelaide, Will’s media career began in 2000 in Port Lincoln for Southern Cross News. Writing, filming and editing his own stories, then moving to Port Pirie to host the local news bulletin. Will has covered a huge range of stories in his more than two decades in journalism, from ground breaking medical research to catastrophic bushfires. Outside of work, Will has a love of adventure and nature. Motorbike riding all over Australia, Hiking and mountain climbing in the Himalayas, and a passion for skydiving. In July 2020, at the age of 42, Will was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer and is determined to beat it.
Professor Scott Williams
Professor Scott Williams is a radiation oncologist at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Australia, and is Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne. He has worked exclusively in uro-oncology his entire career, with a constant focus on prostate cancer research. His research projects include radiation biology, functional imaging, statistical modelling, supportive care and psycho-oncology, and several basic science projects related to the molecular biology and immunology of radiation therapy. Scott is the chair of the prostate cancer subcommittee of the Australian and New Zealand Urogenital and Prostate Cancer Trials Group (ANZUP), which is Australia’s only multidisciplinary collaborative trials group for urological cancers. He is involved in managing multiple research projects, including being Principal Investigator for the ANZUP ENZARAD trial - a global phase III trial of radiation and hormone therapy in high risk prostate cancer. Scott is a member of several national advisory bodies that have a focus on urogenital malignancies including PCFA, as well as being a long-term member of his institutions’ ethics committee. He serves as a reviewer for many international journals and grant funding bodies, as well as the scientific committee of the Cancer Council of Victoria.
Professor David Waugh
Professor David Waugh is Head of School, Biomedical Sciences, Queensland University of Technology, and Professor of Molecular Oncology and Therapeutics. David's primary research interest lies in understanding the importance of inflammatory signals and how they contribute to the initiation and progression of prostate cancers. His work has determined the importance of specific inflammatory chemokine proteins in underpinning the aggressive behaviour of a major population of prostate cancers. Current research is focusing on how inhibiting these signals may constitute new opportunities to improve outcomes for patients with advanced prostate cancer.
Dr Remu Eapen, MBBS FRACS (Urology)
Dr Renu Eapen is a Consultant Urologist in the Genitourinary Oncology service at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and at the Austin Health’s Olivia Newton-John Cancer Centre. Dr Eapen completed her urology training in 2014. She undertook her robotics and uro-oncology fellowship at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Prior to this, she completed a fellowship in urodynamics, incontinence, voiding dysfunction and pelvic reconstruction at the University of Toronto, Canada.
She is undertaking her PhD at the University of Melbourne in high risk prostate cancer in collaboration with the Prostate Cancer Theranostics and Imaging Centre of Excellence at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. Dr Eapen is the recipient of the 2022 Michael and Lori Milken Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) Young Investigator Award. She is co-host of GU Cast, a regular podcast series, focusing on all things related to the world of Genito-Urinary oncology.
Dr Visalini Nair-Shalliker
Dr Visalini Nair-Shalliker is Senior Research Fellow at the Cancer Council NSW. Visalini’s research is focussed on identifying environmental, lifestyle and molecular risk factors of prostate cancer, to improve our understanding on the interactions between modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors.
She completed a PhD in Epidemiology which examined the relationship between sun exposure, vitamin D and development of prostate cancer. This led to her current involvement in a randomised control trial of vitamin D supplementation in men with prostate cancer.
Professor Renea Taylor
Professor Renea Taylor co-heads the Cancer Program at the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute and leads a lab within the Prostate Cancer Research Program at Monash University. She directs a translational research program dedicated to developing clinically relevant models to investigate prostate cancer, with a particular focus on aggressive forms where new treatments are critically needed. Her research uses patient-derived models to test and validate treatments,
moving them one step closer to clinical trials. Her work prioritises optimal therapies, identifies subtypes of likely responders, determines biomarkers, and uncovers resistance mechanisms in prostate cancer. Renea is also a passionate advocate for consumer engagement and science communication, actively raising awareness of prostate cancer in the community. In addition, she leads the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia (PCFA) Prostate Cancer Support Group at Monash University.
Associate Professor Matthew Roberts
Matthew is a surgeon-scientist, working clinically as a urologist and robotic surgeon at RBWH & STARS with academic appointment as Associate Professor at the University of Queensland and Clinician Research Fellow at Metro North Health (Qld). He completed his PhD in 2017 investigating biomarkers for prostate cancer and have interests in prostate cancer, now focusing on novel imaging and biomarkers, clinical trials and innovation in urology.
He has authored over 150 peer reviewed manuscripts in international journals and presented research at more than 20 international urology and clinical cancer meetings. He is a member of the EAU Prostate Cancer Guidelines Committee and the Prostate Cancer Outcomes Registry (PCOR)-Queensland Steering Committee, as well as Co-Convenor of the ANZUP 2024 ASM.
Past Members
Past members of the Research Advisory Committee:
Professor John Mills AO, Chair (2006 to 2013)
Professor Suzanne Chambers AO (2007 to 2015)
Professor Robert 'Frank' Gardiner AM (2008 to 2014, Interim Chair 2012 to 2014)
Professor Afaf Girgis (2012 to 2018)
Professor Howard Gurney (2007 to 2015)
Adjunct Associate Professor Mary Haines (2016-2019)
Associate Professor Susan Henshall (2007 to 2013)
Professor Lisa Horvath (2010 to 2015)
Mr Bruce Kynaston (Consumer Representative, 2010 to 2013)
Professor Peter Leedman (2011 to 2015)
Professor Robert Newton (2007 to 2011)
Professor Richard Pearson (2010 to 2015)
Dr Carmel Pezaro (2016 to 2018)
Dr Ian Roos OAM (Consumer Representative, 2013 to 2014)
Professor Emeritus Pamela J Russell AM (2013-2018)
Professor Mark Smyth (2016-2019)
Prof Declan Murphy 2016 - 2023
Dr Alan ‘Ben’ Smith 2018 - 2023
