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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-09-17 Daily Xml
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Prostate Cancer Awareness Month

The Hon. F. PANGALLO (17:56): I move:

That this council—

1. Notes that September is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month;

2. Notes that prostate cancer is one of the most diagnosed cancers in Australian men, with a profound impact on men, their partners, families and communities;

3. Notes that on average 26,000 new cases of prostate cancer are diagnosed every year across Australia, accounting for about 28 per cent of all new male cancers;

4. Notes that this equates to approximately 7,500 to 8,400 new cases of prostate cancer being diagnosed in South Australia every year;

5. Notes that there has been a substantial increase in diagnosis of prostate cancer in the past fifty years;

6. Notes that the prognosis for prostate cancer varies widely, depending on the type, stage and spread of the cancer and effectiveness of a wide range of treatments;

7. Recognises the vital role of general practitioners, nurses, specialists and allied health workers in early detection, diagnosis, treatment, recovery and survivorship of prostate cancer;

8. Acknowledges the important work of community organisations, including the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia, the Cancer Council, Novartis and support groups;

9. Acknowledges that men in regional and rural communities, First Nations men, and men with a family history of prostate cancer face higher risks and often greater barriers to timely screening, diagnosis and care;

10. Encourages men, particularly those aged over 50 and younger men with additional risk factors or symptoms, to talk with their general practitioner about prostate-specific antigen testing and individual assessment, and to act early on symptoms or concerns; and

11. Commends the work underway to improve access to high-quality diagnosis and treatments, with initiatives delivered by specialist doctors, nurses, allied health professions, family and mental health supports, and better follow-up care improving all the time.

I am speaking to acknowledge that September is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month. I will gladly declare my interest here, as I am a recovering stage 4 prostate cancer survivor and I believe it is important that we continue to spread the message and raise awareness of this very common type of cancer among men.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed in South Australia, with an estimated 1,894 new diagnoses and 264 deaths each year. In fact, there are an estimated 20,000 South Australian men alive today following a diagnosis of prostate cancer in the last 40 years, accounting for around 20 per cent of the cancer survivorship cohort in South Australia.

Notably, South Australia has one of the highest rates of prostate cancer in the world, with significant disparities in survival based on geographic distance to treatment and demographic factors such as socio-economic disadvantage. Of concern is that regional men face a 24 per cent increased risk of death compared to their urban counterparts, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men in South Australia face a 50 per cent increased risk of mortality from prostate cancer compared to non-Indigenous people.

In relation to the growing burden of prostate cancer on the South Australian community, more than 300 South Australian men are newly diagnosed with advanced and incurable stage 3 or stage 4 prostate cancers each year, with one in five South Australian men likely to be diagnosed in their lifetime.

I cannot begin to explain the personal shock I felt in January last year when my oncologist, Dr Braden Higgs, and my urologist, Dr Diwei Lin, gave me the diagnosis that I had stage 4 cancer and a high 8 out of 10 on the Gleason score, which is a scale that indicates how aggressive the cancer is and the likelihood of it spreading. All sorts of thoughts raced through my mind: my mortality, my family, my future on this earth, the gruelling radiation treatment and my work.

I chose to continue working through my treatment. I found it therapeutic even though there were side effects like lethargy. I continue the recovery process, and I am grateful to my doctors, including my GP, Dr David Anderson, who gives me sage advice about pacing myself, which is why I took a decent break recently during the winter recess. Therefore, it was disappointing for me, a recovering cancer survivor, to be ridiculed and mocked by the Premier, the Hon. Mr Koutsantonis and their Labor Party trolls.

Another startling thing I discovered on my journey was how many male friends I knew who had also gone through various stages of prostate cancer or who were experiencing prostate problems. It is so common that it is scary. The good thing is that treatments have improved over the years, and survival rates have improved dramatically. My urologist, Dr Lin, gave me a sense of optimism that prostate cancer can be cured if caught early. There are many treatments achieving success.

One that is getting much international attention is radioligand therapies or RLTs. Novartis has been developing cancer drugs for decades and is now at the forefront of this precision oncology treatment after acquiring the technology. A trial of this targeted radiotherapy has returned impressive results overseas. Some patients in a clinical trial had in just six months completely cleared cancer that had spread around their bodies.

Michael Morris, an oncologist at New York's Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, said it was 'incredible' and 'never seen before'. In the first trial he worked on the scans were clear of cancer for about 9 per cent of the participants. In the second trial, it was 21 per cent.

So how does this new treatment work? Radiotherapy, which is used to treat about half of all cancer patients, is usually delivered from outside the body to kill cancerous cells, but healthy tissues are damaged in the process. Radioligand therapy is given intravenously as an infusion containing radioactive isotopes attached to a ligand. These are molecules that bind to receptors on cancer cells and allow a much more targeted dose of radiation to be delivered.

As the Financial Times of London reports, the promising therapy comes with major logistical challenges. The radioisotopes must be made in a nuclear reactor, then the radioactive drug has to be safely manufactured, transported and delivered to the patients. Novartis has spent years working to overcome these hurdles, yet other companies see the opportunities in the therapy and are racing to catch up. Novartis has seven potential radioligand therapies in 15 clinical trials, with more in preclinical testing. It is exploring different isotopes and therapies in combination and expanding into other cancers, including lung, breast, pancreatic and colon.

Once new radioligand therapies are approved the challenge is making them at scale. Novartis has purchased much of the supply of the radioactive isotope lutetium, so other companies are now looking at alternatives such as actinium. Much of this isotope is sourced from Russia, so they are also having to look for supplies elsewhere.

Once the radioactive material has been made the company has only three to five days to create the drug and deliver it to the patient before the decay process starts to make it less effective. Each vial is made for an individual patient, tailored to their planned treatment day.

Novartis has a proposal to establish South Australia as a centre of excellence in transformative cancer care. Novartis is seeking to establish an Australian-first RLT innovation partnership with the South Australian government that will, firstly, build and enhance local capabilities, spanning research and discovery, supply chain and a skilled workforce to enable clinical transition and trials of new treatments to ensure that South Australia can realise the full economic and productivity potential of RLT; and, secondly, provide South Australian patients with affordable and equitable access to Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods and good manufacturing practice certified radioligand therapies.

There are ongoing problems trying to secure a proton therapy unit here. Radioligand therapy presents an opportunity for the government to look at partnering with this advanced new treatment that is returning positive results. Like any nuclear-type treatment, there are challenges when radioligand therapy is given to patients. Unlike external radiotherapy, the radioactive material remains in the body, continuing to work after the dose is delivered. In some countries, including Germany and Japan, patients must remain isolated overnight in a radiation-proof hospital room. However, there are a few companies that can build this type of specialist facility.

Clinicians also need to be trained in how to care for these patients. In some countries, patients' urine must be collected and stored for 70 days until the radioactive material in it has decayed. These are clinicians and scientists who believe targeted therapies like RLT are the future for cancer treatments and increasing the survival rates among cancer patients. On 12 November, at Parliament House, I will be hosting an information session on RLT, and I will be sending out invitations shortly.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. I.K. Hunter.

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