Rare cancers account for almost 25% of all cancers, and one in three cancer deaths in Australia. A patient with a rare cancer is almost twice as likely to die as a patient with a common cancer.

The Garvan Institute of Medical Research’s Molecular Screening and Therapeutics Trials Program (MoST) is a clinical research program that aims to address the needs of patients with rare or aggressive cancer through personalised experimental treatments based on an individual’s unique genetic profile, rather than their cancer type.

Support from the Australian Government, and philanthropic investments such as the David and Fee Hancock Foundation, have allowed the program to grow from an in-house pilot study, to a national network of more than 20 leading cancer centres in every Australian state and territory, with a recent expansion into New Zealand.

Between September 2016 and October 2022, 533 patients with gynaecological cancers, including 208 individuals with ovarian cancer, have had their genetic profile sequenced. New treatment options can now be explored for these patients.

“We are immensely privileged to be the recipients of philanthropic investment from The David and Fee Hancock Foundation,” says Professor David Thomas, Head of the Genomic Cancer Medicine Laboratory at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Conjoint Professor at St Vincent’s Clinical School, UNSW Medicine & Health and CEO of Omico.”