The OptiDOSE Study: Optimising Antenatal Steroid Dosing for Women at Risk of Delivering Preterm
Being born too early is the leading cause of neonatal death in Australia today. The reason that many preterm babies either die, or suffer from life-long diseases, is because the preterm lung is not ready to support the transition to life outside the womb.
Of the few treatments available to save preterm babies, antenatal steroids are among the most widely used. They act by rapidly maturing the preterm lung, and are given to millions of women around the world each year.
However, despite their wide use, the therapeutic potential of antenatal steroids has never been fully realised. Antenatal steroids are effective in only 50% of cases, and concerns remain about the ill effects of excessive steroid exposure on fetal growth.
View the support opportunity here.Blood Based Biomarkers to Predict Recurrence in Ovarian Cancer
Ovarian cancer is one of the most lethal female cancers with 239,000 new cases worldwide in 2012. It is estimated that 1,580 Australian women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2017.
In the majority of patients, the disease has already spread at the time of diagnosis and despite treatment including surgery and chemotherapy, most women will relapse and ultimately die of their disease. More than half (57%) of women with ovarian cancer are no longer living 5 years after their diagnosis and we need to change this.
The Project is innovative due to a current lack of tests or ‘markers’ to predict ovarian cancer recurrence. Given the key role of the immune system in ovarian cancer, identification of immune-related markers that predict clinical outcomes and reveal new immunotherapeutic approaches could promote long-term remission in these patients.
View the support opportunity here.In November 2014, WIRF launched the Western Australian Preterm Birth Prevention Initiative with the single aim of safely lowering the rate of early birth in our state. Findings from the first full year of the study have reported a reduction in the rate of preterm birth in WA by 8%.
Key to this outcome has been the state-wide outreach program ensuring the WA health care workforce and general public understand the new clinical guidelines that have been put in place. This outreach program has included print media and workshops conducted in hospitals and health care
centres.
During 2015, the outreach team led by Professor John Newnham, travelled more than13,000kms and provided in-service education to more than 500 health care workers in their own work environments.
View the support opportunity here.