Introduction by Croakey: Ongoing uncertainty about the future of the Australian Bragg Centre for Proton Therapy and Research in Adelaide has been highlighted ahead of the trans-Tasman conference hosted next month by the Australian Society of Medical Imaging and Radiation Therapy (ASMIRT) and the New Zealand Institute of Medical Radiation Technology (NZIMRT).
Proton therapy for cancer, practitioner wellbeing, patient-centred care and achieving equity in cancer radiation therapy for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people will be highlighted at the conference for radiographers, sonographers, radiation therapists, nuclear medicine practitioners and the wider medical radiation sciences community.
The conference, with the theme Divergence-Convergence and Opportunities-Focus, will run from 27-30 March in Adelaide on Kaurna Country.
Marie McInerney is covering the event for the Croakey Conference News Service.
Marie McInerney writes:
Leading Australian medical radiation science professionals are urging the Federal and South Australian governments to clarify the future of cutting-edge proton therapy for cancer patients across Australia after plans for a dedicated centre in Adelaide unravelled last year.
The Australian Society of Medical Imaging and Radiation Therapy (ASMIRT) said ongoing uncertainty about the future of the Australian Bragg Centre for Proton Therapy and Research, based in Adelaide’s biomedical precinct, is a concern for patients and practitioners, and raises issues of health equity.
However, ASMIRT has welcomed comments by Federal Health Minister Mark Butler this week, in which he outlined state and federal efforts to resolve the issue and said he wants the therapy available for cancer care in Australia “as quickly as possible”.
The Adelaide Centre was set to provide the first proton therapy facility in the southern hemisphere in a specially designed ‘bunker’, a key part of a $500 million CBD facility hosting other hi-tech research and health services.
A South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI) video about the Centre, published last year, said it was expected to provide significant benefits for cancer treatment and research within Australia, particularly for children, through “precise, non-invasive radiotherapy to destroy cancer cells with minimal damage to surrounding healthy tissue and vital organs”.
“Reducing irradiation of vital organs and other healthy tissues makes proton therapy particularly advantageous for children, adolescents and young adults, who are at greater risk of long-term damage and secondary cancers from the more conventionally used photon radiotherapy,” according to a SAHMRI interview about the Centre last year.
However, late last year, following a series of worrying headlines, SAHMRI announced it had terminated its agreement with United States firm ProTom International (PTI) for the supply of equipment for the Centre.
Local media reported this had left plans for the Centre in “disarray” and raised “concerns about the future of proton therapy in Australia”, following an estimated $100-plus million investment to date.
A spokesperson for SAHMRI told Croakey today that it could not yet provide any further update.
Action needed
Asked for an update, Minister Butler told media this week he had instructed Cancer Australia to bring together all jurisdictions to develop advice for health ministers “to look at about how we go forward”.
The South Australian Government was “doing the lead work on this to see whether another type of unit from another supplier can be sourced” given “there’s a lot of sunk capital there in a building with an area that’s been specifically designed to accommodate a unit”, he said.
In the meantime, his department would seek to make sure the the Medical Treatment Overseas Program (MTOP) is “as flexible as it possibly can be to ensure families and kids can get that treatment still overseas”.
“But I really want to see this unit available in Australia as quickly as possible and I’m working with the South Australia government to try and make sure that happens.,” Butler said.
ASMIRT welcomed the Minister’s comments, saying the organisation was “happy to see he understands the need to establish the proton therapy facility with urgency”.
The organisation, along with the New Zealand Institute of Medical Radiation Technology (NZIMRT), had chosen Adelaide as the location of their joint conference next month so delegates could visit the Centre.
“This will be the first proton therapy facility of its kind in Australia and will provide services to children with cancer from around the nation. We owe it to them to get the Centre up and going as soon as possible,” ASMIRT president Carolyn Heyes told Croakey.
Earlier ASMIRT had noted that radiation therapists had been preparing for a proton facility for many years, including large investments in working groups and education.
“It is a huge change to their workflow requiring significant preparation,” it said. “As practitioners we are holding up our end of the bargain despite many broken timelines. There has been lots of work going on behind the scenes nationwide for years as we all expected referrals of patients to the first centre by now.”
Ahead of the Minister’s comments, Heyes had urged the Federal and South Australian governments to “get the procurement process underway and ensure this time we get it, and investigate why this happened”.
While, as the Minister noted, some patients are able to access proton therapy in other countries under the Medical Treatment Overseas Program, others may miss out, particularly children whose families cannot afford the time off work or other costs, Heyes said.
“That’s wrong,” she said. “This is Australia. Your health treatment should not depend on what your socioeconomic status is.”
In an emailed comment, the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists (RANZCR) told Croakey its position is that Australian patients “must have access to proton therapy” and it hoped governments will “prioritise establishing a local proton therapy centre”.
No stone unturned?
The Adelaide centre had been funded through a public/private partnership including SAHMRI, the Federal Government and the South Australian Government.
SA Treasurer Stephen Mullighan told radio station 5AA last year that the bunker had been built specifically to the dimensions of the ProTom International equipment, and the partners were now investigating whether other suppliers might be able to work with those dimensions.
Acknowledging that clinicians, including paediatric oncologists, had been working for many years towards proton therapy, he said:
We’re going to leave no stone unturned to try to make sure we’ve got the opportunity to provide this therapy in South Australia because it’s good for kids with cancer but it’s also meant to be a facility for the whole country so we want to make sure we give ourselves the best chance of getting it.”
A spokesperson for Mullighan said he was unable to provide an update at this time.
The Australian Medical Association (AMA), Cancer Australia, and the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne declined to comment on the issue.
There is hope Queensland might step into the breach. In 2023, the former Queensland Labor Government announced plans to build a $2.5 billion Queensland Cancer Centr,e which would include proton therapy capacity, all as part of a $9.8 billion Queensland Health Capacity Expansion Program (CEP).
However, late last year the incoming LNP Government announced an independent review of the Capacity Expansion Program, citing “project delays and cost overruns”. The result of the review will be provided to Health and Ambulance Services Minister Tim Nicholls in March.
A spokesperson for the Minister told Croakey “the Government is committed to saving all new and expanded hospital projects in the CEP”.
On the conference agenda
Despite the setback to the Centre, proton therapy will still be very much on the agenda at the three-day ASMIRT/NZIMRT conference from 27-30 March on Kaurna Country in Adelaide.
It will include a keynote from Professor Anita Mahajan, Radiation Oncologist and Medical Director of Particle Therapy at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.
Mahajan told Croakey that access to proton therapy should be a priority in a healthcare system committed to high standards of care, “especially when government support enables the integration of cutting-edge treatments for the most vulnerable patients”.
“As cancer survival rates continue to improve, the goal must be not just to cure but to ensure patients enjoy the best possible quality of life. Investing in advanced therapies like proton therapy is a step toward that future,” she said.
Focus on new technology
In further focus on advances in the field, futurist Craig Rispin will deliver a keynote and lead an expert panel discussion on the role of artificial intelligence in medical imaging and radiation therapy.
Other presenters will highlight new technology promising to retrofit ambulances for earlier stroke treatment and significant developments in breast screening, and news on the National Lung Cancer Screening Program, which is to begin services mid-year.
South Australian convenor Lyndal Newmarch said the organising committee had aimed for a program with a strong focus on practical content, “ensuring that delegates walk away with actionable insights and strategies, enabling them to safely and effectively implement new techniques and ideas within their departments”.
As important is its focus on practitioner wellbeing and patient centred care – strong themes also at previous ASMIRT conferences covered by Croakey in 2024 and 2023, said Aotearoa-New Zealand co-convenor Amy Koskela.
Patient perspectives will also be explored in presentations about first-hand journeys in cancer care, plus research on oral cancer, barriers to and disparities in cancer care for sexual and gender minorities, optimising mammography for wheelchair users, geriatric oncology, diagnostic Imaging for autism and a stream of sessions about imaging children.
Another highlight will be a session on the work of Radiology Across Borders, a global charity which originated and is based in Australia which focuses on teaching key clinical skills to radiologists, doctors and medical imaging staff around the world.
Not surprisingly, the trans-Tasman event will focus on cultural considerations, with a session dedicated to insights from Maori and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander speakers.
Professor Jacinta Elston, the inaugural Pro Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous) at Monash University and Chair of Cancer Australia’s Leadership Group on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cancer Control, will speak on achieving equity in cancer radiation therapy for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. See a previous interview with her here.
In timely presentations given the winding back of Maori rights by the Aotearoa-New Zealand Luxon Government, the conference will also hear from radiation therapist Lisa Te Paiho (Te Aitanga a Mahaki, Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Maniapoto) who is a member of Hei Āhuru Mōwai, Māori Cancer Leadership Group.
Susan Calvert, from New Zealand’s Medical Radiation Technologists Board, will present on what Te Tiriti, the Treaty of Waitangi, means for a health regulator.
Workforce shortages
The ASMIRT conference will also take place in the early aftermath of the Federal Budget, scheduled for 25 March, and as Australia heads towards a federal election, due by 17 May.
Times are still tough for the professions that ASMIRT represents, says Heyes.
As well as continuing to face major workforce shortages in all states and territories, she said ASMIRT is also still stung by the “slap in the face” response of the Federal Government to an appeal for medical radiation science students to be included among teachers, nurses, midwives and social workers with supports to address ‘placement poverty’.
Despite writing to relevant Ministers last May, ASMIRT and the Australian and New Zealand Society of Nuclear Medicine (ANZSNM) only received a response a few weeks ago that offered no support, despite medical radiation students having to do around 52 weeks of placements across a full degree, more than double that of other health professions that had attracted support, Heyes said.
“Who do you think are more likely to have placement poverty?” she asked.
“Ninety-seven percent of patients who go to a public hospital have an interaction with a medical radiation professional, and we don’t count for the Minister to meet with.
“It’s just ridiculous that we haven’t had a look in.”
On a brighter note, Heyes welcomed the return this year of a student conference within #ASMIRTNZMIRT2025, after a six-year hiatus at ASMIRT conferences, largely due to COVID.
In their sessions, students will raise a range of important topics and questions, such as: ‘are Australasian sonographers withholding transvaginal ultrasounds from non-sexually active adults’, ‘what is cultural trauma and how does it inform care for refugees?’ and ‘what are the trends in malpractice litigation in medical imaging technologists and sonographers and why?’.
Bookmark this link to follow Croakey Conference News Service coverage of #ASMIRTNZMIRT2025.
