Bowel cancer, also known as colorectal cancer, can affect any part of the colon or rectum; it may also be referred to as colon cancer or rectal cancer, depending on where the cancer is located.
Bowel cancer screening is for people who do not already have bowel cancer, symptoms of bowel cancer, or any reason to have a high risk of bowel cancer.
Patient-centred care is healthcare that is respectful of, and responsive to, the preferences, needs and values of patients and consumers.
Bowel Cancer Australia provides essential support services uniquely designed for bowel cancer patients via our confidential Helpline with specialist telehealth support, as well as a national Peer-to-Peer Support Network and Buddy Program.
Bowel Cancer Australia funds research that has the potential to improve survival and/or help build a path toward a cure and integrates published research into our awareness, advocacy, and support strategies.
Bowel Cancer Australia relies upon donations and the support of hard working and enthusiastic fundraisers across the country to continue our life saving work. We raise funds to continue our life-saving work and inspire others to do the same, so everyone affected by bowel cancer can live their best life.
Bowel Cancer Australia is funding Australia’s inaugural Early-Onset Bowel Cancer Centre of Research Excellence (CRE), creating a focal point of expertise that fosters and facilitates national collaborative research endeavours focused on the cause of the increase in early-onset bowel cancer.
The core objectives for funding the $3 million, five-year CRE are to:
Bowel Cancer Australia is excited to be collaborating with the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) through the Centres of Research Excellence scheme to improve health outcomes and promote or improve translation of research outcomes into policy and/or practice for early-onset bowel cancer.
Bowel Cancer Australia’s $3 million commitment to establish the CRE has been made possible thanks to the generous support of the charity’s donors and fundraisers.
The CRE will be supported by additional funding of $2.8 million from participating institutions and partners.
Known as the Centre of Research Excellence ARTEMIS, the Centre’s five-year research program will investigate the aetiology, risk factors, tumourigenesis, exposures, microbiome and immune susceptibilities in early-onset bowel cancer. Â
Associate Professor Dan Buchanan, the Lead Investigator and Director of CRE ARTEMIS, leads one of Australia’s most esteemed and prolific teams of researchers, clinicians, and people with lived experience to investigate the causes, biology and risk factors of early-onset bowel cancer.
The Early-Onset Bowel Cancer Centre of Research Excellence will facilitate collaborative research across multiple disciplines and Australian universities, applying state-of-the-art molecular testing and analytical approaches to the country’s leading bioresources to identify what is causing the rise in bowel cancer among young people.
The research will focus on three connected themes:
The three themes will be supported by a centralised data and analysis hub designed to strengthen current and future discovery and translational research.
CRE ARTEMIS will also train and mentor the next generation of early-onset bowel cancer researchers, developing a national workforce with the cross-disciplinary skills needed to drive innovation in prevention, early detection and future treatment.
Through its connection with global early-onset bowel cancer networks, and in collaboration with Bowel Cancer Australia, the Early-Onset Centre of Research Excellence will ensure its findings have broad reach and real-world impact.
Sign up to Bowel Cancer Australia’s newsletter (at the bottom of this webpage) to receive updates as CRE ARTEMIS progresses, including research milestones, new insights and opportunities to learn more about the work underway to improve outcomes for younger people affected by early-onset bowel cancer.
Associate Professor Dan Buchanan is the Director and Lead Investigator of the Centre of Research Excellence ARTEMIS.
A recognised leader in early-onset bowel cancer research, A/Prof Buchanan is committed to translating research into practice and nurturing the next generation of multidisciplinary early-onset bowel cancer researchers.
He is the Head of the Colorectal Oncogenomics Group in the Department of Clinical Pathology and Collaborative Centre for Genomic Cancer Medicine at the University of Melbourne.
He also holds an honorary appointment within the Genomic Medicine and Familial Cancer Centre at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and contributes to national guidelines through the Australian eviQ Cancer Genetics Reference Committee.
His research is grounded in the belief that contemporary early-onset bowel cancer is a new disease entity with multiple causes and risk factors. The heterogeneity of early-onset bowel cancers is shaped by different combinations of inherited risk, environmental exposures, microbiome changes, immune susceptibility and tumour biology.
A/Prof Buchanan’s work seeks to molecularly ‘tease apart’ these different groups of cancers to identify the factors driving the increase in younger Australians experiencing early-onset bowel cancer and to build the evidence base needed for more targeted approaches to risk assessment, prevention, screening and care.
He has published more than 340 publications and been awarded over $26 million in research funding as a lead investigator, including an NHMRC Career Development Fellowship, NHMRC EL2 Investigator grant and a Cancer Australia Research Initiative early-onset bowel cancer grant.
His other leadership roles include co-PI of the NIH-funded Colon Cancer Family Registry, PI of the Genetics of Colonic Polyposis Study and PI of the ANGELS study, which investigates the aetiology of early-onset bowel cancer.
Bushell Research Fellow Adelaide University, SA
Co-Director of the University of Sunshine Coast – Griffith University Hub for Advanced Spatial Biology, University of the Sunshine Coast, QLD
NHMRC Investigator L2, University of Melbourne, VIC
Head Medical Scientist, Bowel Health Service, Flinders University, SA
ARC Future Fellow, Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute and La Trobe University, VIC
Lawrence Penn Chair of Bowel Cancer Research, Kolling Institute, University of Sydney, NSW
NHMRC Investigator EL1, Group Leader of Bacterial Enteric Genomics Program, The Peter Doherty Institute, University of Melbourne VIC
Early-Onset Bowel Cancer Consumer Advocate; Senior Research Fellow, Drug Discovery Biology, Monash University, VIC
Director of Genomic Medicine, Royal Melbourne Hospital and Chair in Adult Clinical Genetics, University of Melbourne VIC
Research Fellow in Colorectal Cancer Genomics, University of Melbourne, VIC
Anatomical Pathologist with a sub-speciality in GI pathology, QLD
Bioinformatics Lead, BioCommons, University of Melbourne, VIC
Group Lead, The Conjoint Gastroenterology Laboratory, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, QLD
Head of Colorectal Medicine and Genetics at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, VIC
Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Microbial Systems Laboratory, Flinders University, SA
Medical Oncologist, Sunshine Coast University Hospital, QLD
Associate Professor of Colorectal Surgery, Adelaide University, SA
Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of Western Australia and Head of the Department of Gastroenterology, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, WAÂ
Early-Onset Bowel Cancer Consumer Advocate; Co-Lead Lived Experience Advisory Committee; Senior Research Fellow, Drug Discovery Biology, Monash University, VIC
Early-Onset Bowel Cancer Consumer Advocate; Co-Lead Lived Experience Advisory Committee; Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Microbial Systems Laboratory, Flinders University, SA
Early-Onset Bowel Cancer Consumer Advocate. Advocating for earlier diagnosis, greater awareness and meaningful health system change. Proud lived experience representative contributing to bowel cancer research, QLD
Early-Onset Bowel Cancer Consumer Advocate; Research Fellow and Teaching Associate, Monash University, VIC
Early-Onset Bowel Cancer Consumer Advocate, VIC
Early-onset bowel cancer has become a major health problem in Australia and globally.
According to our recent study led by Chief Investigators Mark Jenkins and Dan Buchanan and Associate Investigators Finlay Macrae and Christophe Rosty, the incidence of early-onset bowel cancer has risen by 5-9% annually since the 1990s in Australia, resulting in more than 5,000 excess cases.
Early-onset bowel cancer incidence is the fastest rise of any cancer type in Australia, and this trend is projected to continue in the absence of novel strategies for prevention and early detection.
Alarmingly, early-onset bowel cancer now constitutes around 13% of all new bowel cancer diagnoses, an increase from around 7% two decades ago.
Early-onset bowel cancer is often diagnosed after symptoms develop, at an advanced stage. This results in poorer survival, higher treatment-related morbidity and substantial years of life lost.
Without new knowledge, current trends will continue, and more young Australians will die from this preventable cancer.