Reaching new cancer understanding
As a young boy, all Dr Mark Shackleton, from the University of Melbourne, wanted to do was become a doctor – and cure cancer. The cancer expert and Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre were recently named the 2012 Prime Minister’s Prize for Life Scientist of the Year.
As a young boy, all Dr Mark Shackleton, from the University of Melbourne, wanted to do was become a doctor – and cure cancer.
The cancer expert and Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre were recently named the 2012 Prime Minister’s Prize for Life Scientist of the Year.
Dr Shackleton, a Senior Fellow in the University’s Department of Pathology and the Sir Peter MacCallum Department of Oncology, was recognised for his contribution to understanding the evolution of cancer cells.
Like other researchers, he worked on the prevailing view that cancers were organised like normal organs, maintained by cancerous stem cells that drove tumour growth. His research destroyed that view and turned the field of cancer research on its head.
“I am delighted to have won this prestigious award. I pay tribute to my research team and to all cancer patients,” Dr Shackleton says.
He describes cancer as a disease of “enormous complexity”.
“Our latest research is revealing quite starkly that it is a living entity, that can evolve remarkably quickly,” he says.
“This award will allow me to advance research in this new and exciting area. I am investing in research that has huge implications for the development of new cancer treatments that provide lasting benefit to patients.”
Dr Shackleton completed PhD studies on breast cancer at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research and completed post-doctoral studies at the University of Michigan on the deadly skin cancer known as melanoma.
He is now undertaking work on melanomas that suggests these tumours are intrinsically dynamic, changing their behaviour—sometimes dramatically and quickly—over time.
