Category: Medical Advisory Board

A/Professor David Gyorki

Associate Professor David Gyorki

Associate Professor David Gyorki is a consultant surgical oncologist at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Epworth Hospital and Austin Health specialising in the management of patients with melanoma and soft tissue sarcoma. He is also the Research and Education Lead in Melanoma and Skin Cancer at the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre and a board member of the Australia and New Zealand Sarcoma Association.

During his surgical training, David completed an MD degree at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute studying the role of macrophages in the stem cell niche. After completing his surgical training at St Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne, David undertook a fellowship in complex surgical oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre in New York.

David leads the retroperitoneal sarcoma program at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and is committed to better understanding this complex group of cancers. He is the Australian lead investigator in the STRASS 2 trial studying the role of preoperative chemotherapy in patients with retroperitoneal sarcoma at high risk of recurrence. He is also heavily involved in a large international registry seeking to better understand outcomes for patients with retroperitoneal sarcoma.

Professor David Gyorki is a highly accomplished surgical oncologist based in Melbourne, and is a Board member of the Australia New Zealand Sarcoma Association.

 

Dr Geoff McCowage

Senior Staff Specialist and Deputy Head,
Department of Oncology,
The Sydney Children’s Hospital Network, Westmead, NSW, Australia

August 1996 – present: Staff Specialist in Paediatric Oncology,

The Sydney Children’s Hospital Network, Westmead

July 1993 – June 1996: Paediatric Haematology/Oncology Fellow
Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA
July 1991- June 1993: Paediatric Haematology/ Oncology Fellow,
The Sydney Children’s Hospital Network, Randwick.

1989-1991: Paediatric RMO/Registrar,

The Sydney Children’s Hospital Network, Randwick.
1985-1987: Intern/RMO, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Camperdown, NSW
FURTHER QUALIFICATIONS
1991: admitted to Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (Paediatrics) on 28th
April, 1993.
1992: completed examination for the Education Committee for Foreign Medical Graduates of the
United States.
OTHER APPOINTMENTS
2003 – 2011: Director, Fellow Recruitment and Training, Oncology Unit, SCHN-W
2004 -present: Director, Clinical Trials Program, Oncology Unit, SCHN-W
2006 – present: Deputy Head, Oncology Unit, SCHN-W
2007 – present: Convenor, Solid Tumour Meeting, SCHN-W
2009 – present: Director, Solid Tumour Program, SCHN-W
2011 – 2015: Director AYA Oncology Services, SCHN-W
2012-2018: Deputy Director, Kids’ Cancer Alliance

 

PUBLICATIONS:

 

  1. Woolcock AJ, Peat JK, Salome CM,  Yan K,  Anderson SD,  Schoeffel RE,  McCowage G,  Killalea T:  Prevalence  of  bronchial  hyper-responsiveness  and  asthma  in  a  rural  adult  population.  Thorax  1987  May; 42 (5): 361-368.
  2. McCowage GB, Vowels MR, O’Gorman-Hughes D, White L, Brown R, Marshall: The experience of a single Australian paediatric oncology unit: 1000 patients 1964-1987. Med J Aust October 4, 1993.
  3. White L, McCowage G, Kannourakis G, Nayanar V, Colnan L, Kellie S, Shaw P, Seshadri R, Lockwood L, Tiedemann K, Toogood I: Dose intensive cyclophosphamide with etoposide and vincristine for pediatric solid tumors. J Clin Oncol 12:522-531, 1994.
  4. McCowage GB, Kurtzberg J, Rubinstein P: Transplantation of cord-blood cells. New Engl J Med 333 (1): 67, 1995 (letter).
  5. McCowage GB, Vowels MR, Shaw PJ, Lockwood L, Mameghan H: Autologous bone marrow transplantation for advanced neuroblastoma using teniposide, doxorubicin, melphalan, cisplatin and total body irradiation. J Clin Oncol, 13:2789-2795
  6. McCowage G, Tien R, McLendon R, Felsberg G, Fuchs H, Graham ML, Kurtzberg J, Moghrabi A, Ferrell L, Kerby T, Duncan-Brown M, Stewart E, Robertson  P, Colvin OM, Golembe B, Bigner DD, Friedman HS:  Successful treatment of childhood pilocytic astrocytomas metastatic to the leptomeninges with  high-dose  cyclophosphamide. Med Pediatr Oncol 27:32-39, 1996.
  7. McCowage GB, Frush D, Kurtzberg J: Successful treatment of two children with Langerhan’s cell histiocytosis with 2’-deoxycoformycin. J Pediatr Hematol Oncol 18(2):154-158, 1996.
  8. Ashley DA, Longee D, Tien R, Fuchs H, Graham ML, Kurtzberg J, Casey J, Olsen J, Meier L, Ferrell L, Kerby T, Duncan-Brown M, Stewart E, Colvin OM, McCowage G, Bigner DD, Friedman HS: Treatment of patients with pineoblastoma with high dose cyclophosphamide. Med Pediatr Oncol 26:387-392, 1996.
  9. Jones DN, McCowage G, Sostman HD, Brizel DM, Layfield L, Charles HC, Dewhirst MW, Prescott DM, Friedman HS, Harrelson JM, Scully SP, Coleman RE: Monitoring of neoadjuvant therapy response of musculoskeletal sarcomas using F18-FDG PET: initial evaluation. J Nuc Med 37:1438-1444, 1996.
  10. Phillips K, Gentry T, McCowage G, Gilboa E, Smith C: Cell-surface markers for assessing gene transfer into human hematopoietic cells. Nature-Medicine 2 (10):1154-1156, 1996.
  11. McCowage GB, White L, Carpenter P, Lockwood L, Toogood I, Tiedemann K, Shaw PJ: Granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor in association with high-dose

chemotherapy (VETOPEC) for childhood solid tumors: a report from the Australia and New  Zealand Children’s Cancer Study Group.  Med Pediatr Oncol, 29:108-114, 1997.

  1. McCowage GB, Phillips KL, Gentry TL, Hull S, Kurtzberg J, Gilboa E, Smith C: Multiparameter-fluorescence activated cell sorting analysis of retroviral vector gene transfer into primitive umbilical cord blood cells. Exp Hematol 26:288-298, 1998.
  2. McCowage GB, Friedman HS, Moghrabi A, Kerby T, Ferrell L, Stewart E, Duncan-Brown M, Fuchs HE, Tien R, McLendon RE, Meier L, Kurtzberg J, Ashley D, Colvin OM, Longee DC: Activity of high-dose cyclophosphamide in the treatment of childhood malignant gliomas. Med Pediatr Oncol, 30:75-80, 1998.
  3. Sharma P, Watson N, Sartor M, McCowage GB, Smith A: 15 Cases of  t(1;19) (q23;p 13.3) Identified in an Australia series of 122 children and 80 adults with Acute Lymphoblastic leukaemia. Cancer Genetics & Cytogenetics 124: 132-136, 2001.
  4. Barbaric D, Holley D, Lau KC, McCowage G. It is ALL in the heart: a patient with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and cardiac infiltration at time of diagnosis. Leuk Lymphoma 2002; 43(12):2417-2419.
  5. Bosly A, Sonet A, Pinkerton CR, McCowage G, Bron D, Sanz MA et al. Rasburicase (recombinant urate oxidase) for the management of hyperuricemia in patients with cancer: report of an international compassionate use study. Cancer 2003; 98(5):1048-1054.
  6. Philip I, Shun A, McCowage G, Howman-Giles R. Positron emission tomography in recurrent hepatoblastoma. Pediatric Surgery International 2005; 21(5):341-345.
  7. Ginn SL, Curtin JA, Kramer B, Smyth CM, Wong M, Kakakios A et al. Treatment of an infant with X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID-X1) by gene therapy in Australia. Med J Aust 2005; 182(9):458-463.
  8. Ziegler DS. Cohn RJ. McCowage G. Alvaro F. Oswald C. Mrongovius R. White L. Australian and New Zealand Children’s Study Group. Efficacy of vincristine and etoposide with escalating cyclophosphamide in poor-prognosis pediatric brain tumors. Neuro-Oncology2006; 8(1):53-9.
  9. Ziegler DS. McCowage G. Cohn RJ. White L. Long-term survival following a phase I/II trial with VETOPEC for solid tumors in childhood. Journal of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology 2006; 28(1):40-2.
  10. Ziegler DS, Cohn RJ, McCowage G et al. Efficacy of vincristine and etoposide with escalating cyclophosphamide in poor-prognosis pediatric brain tumors. Neuro-Oncology 2006 January;8(1):53-9.
  11. Kramer BA, Lemckert FA, Alexander IE, Gunning PW, McCowage GB. Characterisation of a P140K mutant O6-methylguanine-DNA-methyltransferase (MGMT)-expressing transgenic mouse line with drug-selectable bone marrow. Journal of Gene Medicine 2006 September;8(9):1071-85.
  12. Beckett SM, Laughton SJ, Pozza LD et al. Buccal swabs and treated cards: methodological considerations for molecular epidemiologic studies examining pediatric populations. American Journal of Epidemiology 2008 May 15;167(10):1260-7.
  13. Dhall G, Grodman H, Ji L et al. Outcome of children less than three years old at diagnosis with non-metastatic medulloblastoma treated with chemotherapy on the “Head Start” I and II protocols. Pediatric Blood & Cancer 2008 June;50(6):1169-75.
  14. Gardner SL, Asgharzadeh S, Green A, Horn B, McCowage G, Finlay J. Intensive induction chemotherapy followed by high dose chemotherapy with autologous hematopoietic progenitor cell rescue in young children newly diagnosed with central nervous system atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumors. Pediatric Blood & Cancer 2008 August;51(2):235-40.
  15. Howman-Giles R, London K, McCowage G, Graf N, Harvey J. Pulmonary inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor after Hodgkin’s lymphoma and application of PET imaging. Pediatric Surgery International 2008 August;24(8):947-51.
  16. Lee AS. Kahatapitiya P. Kramer B. Joya JE. Hook J. Liu R. Schevzov G. Alexander IE. McCowage G. Montarras D. Gunning PW. Hardeman EC. Methylguanine DNA methyltransferase-mediated drug resistance-based selective enrichment and engraftment of transplanted stem cells in skeletal muscle. Stem Cells. 27(5):1098-108, 2009 May.
  17. McCowage GB. Mrongovius R. Alvaro F. Cohn RJ. Ziegler DS. Oswald C. White L. Treatment of children with poor risk solid tumors by further escalation of the VETOPEC regimen including very high-dose cyclophosphamide and peripheral stem cell support: an Australian and New Zealand Children’s Hematology and Oncology Group study. Pediatric Blood & Cancer. 57(6):958-64, 2011 Dec 1.
  18. Howman-Giles R. McCowage G. Kellie S. Graf N.Extrarenal malignant rhabdoid tumor in childhood application of 18F-FDG PET/CT. Journal of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology. 34(1):17-21, 2012 Jan.
  19. Yalon M. Rood B. MacDonald TJ. McCowage G. Kane R. Constantini S. Packer RJ. A feasibility and efficacy study of rapamycin and erlotinib for recurrent pediatric low-grade glioma (LGGPediatric Blood & Cancer. 60(1):71-6, 2013 Jan.
  20. Limb preservation surgery with extracorporeal irradiation in the management of malignant bone tumor: the oncological outcomes of 101 patients.Hong AM; Millington S; Ahern V; McCowage G; Boyle R; Tattersall M; Haydu L; Stalley PD.Annals of Oncology. 24(10):2676-80, 2013 Oct
  21. Bass JK. Huang J. Onar-Thomas A. Chang KW. Bhagat SP. Chintagumpala M. Bartels U. Gururangan S. Hassall T. Heath JA. McCowage G. Cohn RJ. Fisher MJ. Robinson G. Broniscer A. Gajjar A. Gurney JG: Concordance between the Chang and the International Society of Pediatric Oncology (SIOP) ototoxicity grading scales in patients treated with cisplatin for medulloblastoma.. Pediatric Blood & Cancer. 61(4):601-5, 2014 Apr.
  22. Systemic therapy in neurofibromatosis type 2. [Review] Lim SH; Ardern-Holmes S; McCowage G; de Souza P. Cancer Treatment Reviews. 40(7):857-61, 2014 Aug.
  23. Medulloblastoma Down Under 2013: a report from the third annual meeting of the International Medulloblastoma Working Group. Gottardo NG; Hansford JR; McGlade JP; …; McCowage G; …; Gajjar A.
  24. Confirmation of Bevacizumab Activity, and Maintenance of Efficacy in Retreatment After Subsequent Relapse, in Pediatric Low-grade Glioma. Kalra M; Heath JA; Kellie SJ; Dalla Pozza L; Stevens MM; Swamy S; McCowage GB. Journal of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology. 37(6):e341-6, 2015 Aug.
  25. Pulmonary Function After Treatment for Embryonal Brain Tumors on SJMB03 That Included Craniospinal Irradiation. Green DM; Merchant TE; Billups CA; Stokes DC; Broniscer A; Bartels U; Chintagumpala M; Hassall TE; Gururangan S; McCowage GB; Heath JA; Cohn RJ; Fisher MJ; Srinivasan A; Robinson GW; Gajjar A. International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics. 93(1):47-53, 2015 Sep 01.
  26. Methyl-Guanine-Methyl-Transferase Transgenic Bone Marrow Transplantation Allows N,N-bis(2-chloroethyl)-Nitrosourea Driven Donor Mixed-Chimerism Without Graft-Versus-Host Disease, and With Donor-Specific Allograft Tolerance. Hu M; Kramer B; Zhang GY; Wang YM; Watson D; Howden B; McCowage G; Alexander IE; Gunning P; Alexander SI. Transplantation. 99(12):2476-84, 2015 Dec
  27. Folate pathway gene polymorphisms, maternal folic acid use, and risk of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Milne E; Greenop KR; Scott RJ; Haber M; Norris MD; Attia J; Jamieson SE; Miller M; Bower C; Bailey HD; Dawson S; McCowage GB; de Klerk NH; van Bockxmeer FM; Armstrong BK. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. 24(1):48-56, 2015 Jan
  28. Ub-ISAP: a streamlined UNIX pipeline for mining unique viral vector integration sites from next generation sequencing data. Kamboj A; Hallwirth CV; Alexander IE; McCowage GB; Kramer B. BMC Bioinformatics. 18(1):305, 2017 Jun 17.
  29. Spectrum and prevalence of genetic predisposition in medulloblastoma: a retrospective genetic study and prospective validation in a clinical trial cohort. Waszak SM; Northcott PA; Buchhalter I; ….; McCowage G;…. Pfister SM. Lancet Oncology. 19(6):785-798, 2018 06
  30. Pre-irradiation intensive induction and marrow-ablative consolidation chemotherapy in young children with newly diagnosed high-grade brainstem gliomas: report of the “head-start” I and II clinical trials. Osorio DS; Patel N; Ji L; Sposto R; Stanek J; Gardner SL; Allen JC; Cornelius A; McCowage GB; Termuhlen A; Dunkel IJ; Comito M; Garvin J; Finlay JL. Journal of Neuro-Oncology. 140(3):717-725, 2018 Dec.
  31. Long-term morbidity of respiratory viral infections during chemotherapy in children with leukaemia. Lin B; Kennedy B; McBride J; Dalla-Pozza L; Trahair T; McCowage G; Coward E; Plush L; Robinson PD; Hardaker K; Widger J; Ng A; Jaffe A; Selvadurai H. Pediatric Pulmonology. 54(11):1821-1829, 2019 11.
  32. Addition of Vincristine and Irinotecan to Vincristine, Dactinomycin, and Cyclophosphamide Does Not Improve Outcome for Intermediate-Risk Rhabdomyosarcoma: A Report From the Children’s Oncology Group. Hawkins DS; Chi YY; Anderson JR; Tian J; …; McCowage G; … Meyer WH. Journal of Clinical Oncology. 36(27):2770-2777, 2018 09 20.
  33. Gender differences in doxorubicin pharmacology for subjects with chemosensitive cancers of young adulthood. Liu Z; Martin J; Orme L; Seddon B; Desai J; Nicholls W; Thomson D; Porter D; McCowage G; Underhill C; Cranswick N; Michael M; Zacharin M; Herschtal A; Sivasuthan J; Thomas DM. Cancer Chemotherapy & Pharmacology. 82(5):887-898, 2018 11.
  34. Phase II, Open-Label, Randomized, Multicenter Trial (HERBY) of Bevacizumab in Pediatric Patients With Newly Diagnosed High-Grade Glioma. Grill J; Massimino M; Bouffet E; Azizi AA; McCowage G; Canete A; Saran F; Le Deley MC; Varlet P; Morgan PS; Jaspan T; Jones C; Giangaspero F; Smith H; Garcia J; Elze MC; Rousseau RF; Abrey L; Hargrave D; Vassal G. Journal of Clinical Oncology. 36(10):951-958, 2018 04 01.
  35. Clinical Trial of MGMT(P140K) Gene Therapy in the Treatment of Pediatric Patients with Brain Tumors. Kramer B; Singh R; Wischusen J; Dent R; Rush A; Middlemiss S; Ching YW; Alexander IE; McCowage G. Human Gene Therapy. 29(8):874-885, 2018 08.
  36. Accelerating development of high-risk neuroblastoma patient-derived xenograft models for preclinical testing and personalised therapy. Kamili A; Gifford AJ; Li N; Mayoh C; Chow SO; Failes TW; Eden GL; Cadiz R; Xie J; Lukeis RE; Norris MD; Haber M; McCowage GB; Arndt GM; Trahair TN; Fletcher JI. British Journal of Cancer. 122(5):680-691, 2020 03.
  37. Long-term morbidity of respiratory viral infections during chemotherapy in children with leukaemia. Lin B; Kennedy B; McBride J; Dalla-Pozza L; Trahair T; McCowage G; Coward E; Plush L; Robinson PD; Hardaker K; Widger J; Ng A; Jaffe A; Selvadurai H. Pediatric Pulmonology. 54(11):1821-1829, 2019 11.
  38. Emergency Ross Procedure for Pediatric Aortic Valve Myxofibrosarcoma. Krishna MR; Marathe SP; Maghsoudi A; McCowage G; Sherwood MC; Orr Y. Annals of Thoracic Surgery. 107(3):e183-e185, 2019 03.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr Richard Boyle

Dr Richard Boyle, BSc (MED) MBBS (Hons) FRACS FA (Orth) A, graduated with honours in medicine from UNSW and completed his orthopaedic training in Sydney, with advanced fellowship training in Sydney, Canada and Europe, including fellowships in Arthroplasty + Bone and Soft Tissue tumours.

 
Dr Boyle is a Fellow of the Australian Orthopaedic Association and Royal Australian College of Surgeons, is the current Chair of Northside NSW Orthopaedic Training Scheme, and is a Senior Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon. He is the medical director of the NSW Bone Bank, and is clinical Lecturer at The Australian School of Advanced Medicine, Macquarie University. 
 
He is an active member of the Australian Sarcoma Group and International Society of Limb Salvage, has been an invited convenor and speaker at local and international conferences, and is involved in a number of clinical trials for tumour treatment.
2015-07-10 Keith Cox

Keith Cox, OAM

KEITH COX, OAM, JP, NP, RN Onc Cert 

Keith was the Oncology/ Chemotherapy Nurse Practitioner at the Chris O’Brien Lifehouse unil the end of 2017, after some 38 years in cancer nursing.  He now remains involved in a consultant role. He is a Senior Clinical Lecturer at the University of Sydney, and is an Accreditation Assessor for the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Accreditation Council (ANMAC)

As a Nurse Practitioner, Keith bore a greater responsibility than a regular nurse, prescribing medicine, ordering tests and screenings,  and the referral of patients to other medical professionals.

Keith is a Board member of Cancer Institute, Board member of the Biaggio Signorelli Foundation, for Research into Mesothelioma, Member of the Chris O’Brien partnership Advisory council, and committee member of the Foundation. He was awarded an Order of Australia Medal in the 2007 Queen’s Birthday honours list for his services to Cancer Nursing, his work with youth and his volunteer work.  Keith has a wide range of research experience and numerous publications.

I first met Cooper and his parents, when he first visited the Chris O’Brien Lifehouse to discuss chemotherapy. We connected from that first meeting as we talked about chemotherapy and its side effects. As he continued on his Cancer journey, we became very close, Cooper and I would be able to communicate on all levels.  It was a privilege to have cared for Cooper.

Publications in peer-reviewed journals

Cox KM, Goel S, O’Connell RL, Boyer M, Beale PJ, Simes RJ & Stockler MR. (2011 epub). Randomized cross – over trial comparing inpatient and outpatient administration of high dose cisplatin, Internal Medicine Journal

McKenzie H, Hayes L, White K, Cox K, Fethney J, Boughton M & Dunn J. (2010 Epub). Chemotherapy outpatients’ unplanned presentations to hospital: a retrospective study, Supportive Care in Cancer

Presentations

Keynote, Plenary and Invited Conference Presentations, Workshops and Panel Discussions

Cox KM (2010) Leadership in Australian Cancer Nursing. Cancer Nurses Society of Australia 13th Winter Congress, Perth, July

Cox K (2010) Treatment Developments. Session Chair, 16th International Conference on Cancer Nursing, Atlanta, USA, March
Cox KM (2009) Recent advances and practical solutions in managing chemotherapy side effects. COSA Annual Scientific Meeting, Gold Coast, November

Cox KM (2009) Cancer Information Update and its relevance to Enrolled Nurses, Enrolled Nurses Conference, Bomaderry, September

Cox K (co-facilitator) (2009) Venous Access Device Workshop. 12th CNSA Winter Congress, Newcastle, June

Cox KM (2009) Management of Tumour Lysis Syndrome. 12th CNSA Winter Congress, Newcastle, 3–4 June

Cox KM, Stirling A, Baychek K, Sister Act: CERS in Chemotherapy ambulatory unit. 6th conference of The Australian College of Nurse Practitioners, Adelaide, 6–8 October 2011