A/Prof Melissa Moore

Medical Oncologist, St Vincent’s Hospital

Melissa is a medical oncologist with sub-specialty interests in cancers of the lung, breast and upper gastrointestinal tract. Her research interests include body composition in cancer patients and the role of exercise.

A/Prof Moore undertook oncology training in Sydney followed by a lab-based PhD investigating the molecular mechanisms of cancer cachexia. She is the local principal investigator of a number of clinical trials for patients with lung cancer and oversees the oncology clinical trials department at St Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne. She is passionate about increasing clinical trial participation. She is a TOGA Board member and Education Chair.

Dr Rebecca Tay

Medical Oncologist, Royal Hobart Hospital / Icon Cancer Centre

Dr Rebecca Tay is a medical oncologist at the Royal Hobart Hospital and Icon Cancer Centre. Dr Tay completed medical oncology training in Melbourne followed by a clinical research fellowship in lung cancer at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester, United Kingdom.

Dr Tay is extensively involved in clinical research as a principal/sub-investigator for several active clinical trials and is the current TOGA Scientific Committee SCLC/mesothelioma co-chair.

A/Prof Thomas John

Medical Oncologist, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre

A/Prof Thomas John is a medical oncologist specialising in Thoracic malignancies and genetics working at the Peter MacCallum hospital in Melbourne. He received his medical degree from Monash University and PhD from University of Melbourne in 2008. He completed a post-doctoral fellowship with Prof F. Shepherd and Prof M. Tsao in Toronto before returning to Melbourne.

He is a member of ASCO, ESMO, IASLC, AACR, MOGA and the Thoracic Oncology Group Australasia (TOGA), and chair of the Scientific Committee for TOGA. He is an associate editor for the Journal of Thoracic Oncology and is actively involved clinical trials and translational research into lung cancer and mesothelioma.

A/Prof Jaclyn Yoong

Medical Oncologist | Palliative Care Physician, Northern Health | Monash Health

A/Prof Jaclyn Yoong is a Medical Oncologist and Palliative Care Physician from Melbourne. She works at Northern Health and Monash Health; and her primary interest is in lung cancer care and effective integration with palliative care. She completed her fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston in 2012 and also attended the TS Chan Harvard School of Public Health; subsequently attaining a Masters in Public Health from Monash University in 2016. More recently she has also become interested in integrated palliative care for patients with progressive neurological disease. When she’s not working, she enjoys motorsports and thinks life shouldn’t be taken too seriously, because, after all, laughter is the best medicine.

A/Prof Steven Kao

Staff Specialist, Chris O’Brien Lifehouse

A/Prof Steven Kao is a medical oncologist at the Chris O’Brien Lifehouse. He completed his PhD at the Asbestos Diseases Research Institute and focused his research on predictive and prognostic factors in mesothelioma. Steven is a keen clinical trialist focusing on thoracic oncology and continues translational research in mesothelioma and lung cancer. He was awarded the Premier’s Award for Outstanding Cancer Research Scholar from the Cancer Institute NSW in 2012.

Prof Ben Solomon

Medical Oncologist, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre

Professor Ben Solomon (MBBS, PhD, FRACP) is a Medical Oncologist at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne, Australia. After completing a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Colorado he returned to Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in 2006 where he practices as a Medical Oncologist with a focus on clinical and translational research in lung cancer and phase I studies of novel anti-cancer therapies. He has been involved in the clinical development of targeted therapies in lung cancer, including the phase I through to phase III clinical trials of ALK TKIs as well as trials of other targeted therapies and novel immunotherapies. He serves as an inaugural board member of the Thoracic Oncology Group of Australasia.

Dr Malinda Itchins

Medical Oncologist, Royal North Shore Hospital | Chris O’Brien Lifehouse

Dr Malinda Itchins BMedSci, MBBS(Hons1), PhD, FRACP, is a thoracic medical oncologist at Royal North Shore Hospital, GenesisCare, and North Shore Private and early career researcher and senior clinical lecturer with the University of Sydney. In 2020 she graduated from University of Sydney in her doctoral studies investigating drug resistance in ALK-rearranged non-small cell lung cancer both preclinically and clinically. Malinda is a Board Director and the Lung Cancer Chair for the Clinical Oncology of Australia (COSA), and Advanced NSCLC Co-Chair for the Thoracic Oncology Group of Australasia (TOGA) Scientific Committee. She is Primary Investigator on several lung cancer clinical trials and her research focus to date has been in patterns of care, the real-world experience, biomarker exploration and drug resistance in lung cancer. She is passionate about the evolution of precision medicine and equity of access to care in thoracic cancers.

Graham Hall

Consumer Advocate

Graham has been a Patient Advocate for Lung Cancer since his diagnosis in 2018.  He started patient advocacy after he saw the disparity with the survival rate and level of care, between his two primary cancers, Prostate and Lung Cancer (ALK positive mutation). His first advocacy role was for Lung Foundation Australia (LFA) where he, along with other patient advocates shared their stories at the Australian Federal Parliament House to encourage more government funding for dedicated lung cancer nurses.  Further presentations and meetings on behalf of LFA ensued which saw additional funds allocated by the Australian Government.

Graham continued to share his story via government submissions for funding assistance of certain pharmaceuticals, providing patient perspectives of the implications if medications are inaccessible due to cost or availability and the far-reaching impacts it causes.

Over the last 18 months, Graham has, along with two other patients and their respective partners, established an Australian registered charity ALK Positive Australia Inc. They saw that information, support and research funding for Australians diagnosed with ALK Positive Lung Cancer was limited and nearly all information based on overseas methodologies, with some noticeable variances in standard of care between countries. From their experience and those with similar conditions, they saw confusion for treatment options for nearly all newly diagnosed patients. The charity, although still fairly new, has resolved some of these issues, with the other solutions well on the way to being implemented.

To further develop knowledge, Graham has attended numerous conferences regarding Lung Cancer such as those hosted by LFA and TOGA (Thoracic Oncology Group Australasia). In addition, he also has attended IASLC (International Association of the Study of Lung Cancer) World Conference on Lung Cancer and virtually the ALK Summit. Graham has also been accepted for the IASLC STARS Patient Research Advocate program for 2024.

Graham is a recipient of the IASLC 2023 Educational Award for his concept on the website for ALK Positive Lung Cancer Australia Inc and has participated in various video content for Lung Cancer based organisations. Some of the more recent content is a promotional video for the IASLC LCAM23 and a speaker on a webinar for the Australian Lung Foundations Lung Cancer Conference Consumer Advocacy wrap-up.

Graham continues to seek out opportunities to help the broader Lung Cancer Community achieve better outcomes for those, like himself, fighting Lung Cancer.

When Graham is not participating in lung cancer advocacy, he enjoys spending quality time with his wife and twin teenage sons along with their neurotic Cocker Spaniel.