Sally Crossing AM Award for improving radiotherapy by Professor Paul Keall
We are pleased to announce the recipient of the 2025 Sally Crossing AM Award, Professor Keall, who leads the Image X Institute at the University of Sydney, for engaging consumers throughout his research which has positively impacted the lives of millions of cancer patients.
More than 162,000 Australians will be diagnosed with cancer this year and radiation therapy will form a critical component of treatment for around half of these patients. However, there is a challenge to improving the efficacy of radiation therapy: tumours move during this treatment due to breathing, digestion and other bodily functions.
Through Cancer Council NSW funding, Professor Keall and his team developed a beam adaptation technology which adjusts the radiation beam’s shape and position to target the moving tumour in real-time. This means the treatment beam’s destructive energy is focussed on the cancer, not the patient’s healthy tissue. This technology has improved the lives of many cancer patients by reducing toxicity and increasing treatment efficacy, meaning people with a cancer diagnosis have fewer hospital visits and can return home sooner.
John Stubbs AM is the primary consumer representative contributing towards this research, a dedicated and passionate advocate for individuals affected by cancer. John’s integral role in the development of the research proposal, through to the delivery of the research work has been crucial to the study’s success. His involvement includes active participation in research meetings and an extensive network with patient groups and consumer forums.
In John’s own words: “As a cancer consumer and advocate, I am very supportive of research that can be directly translated into improved treatment outcomes for patients. It has been a pleasure to work with Paul and his team of young, smart, and dedicated researchers on this grant to improve a central goal of radiation therapy – accurately targeting the cancer with the radiation beam.”
The funding from this award will be used to support a clinical trial coordinator to be the bridge between the scientific developments and patients, enabling patients to have early access to, and benefit from, this research.
Awarded by Cancer Council NSW in collaboration with Cancer Voices NSW, this award is made possible by the extraordinary support of the Belalberi Foundation and the Crossing family. For 20 years, Cancer Voices NSW has been working with Cancer Council NSW, training people with a lived experience of cancer to partner on research projects and to be part of the consumer grant review panel.