PATIENT REPORTED OUTCOMES IN THE DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT OF LYMPHOMA
Dr Elizabeth Goodall,
Haematologist and PhD student
Austin Health, Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute & Monash Health, Melbourne, Australia
RESEARCHER PROFILE
Filmed in Melbourne | February 2025
Dr. Elizabeth Goodall (BMedSci Hons, MBBS Hons, FRACP, FRCPA) is a PhD student and early career researcher with La Trobe University and the Olivia Newton John Cancer Research Institute (ONJCRI), and Haematologist at Austin Health and Monash Health, Melbourne.
After completing her undergraduate degree in Medical Sciences at La Trobe University she went onto complete an Honours degree in malaria research before enrolling in Medicine at Monash University, Gippsland, Victoria in Australia.
Following medical school, she trained at Austin Health and successfully completed both clinical and laboratory haematology programs before moving to a lymphoma clinical trials fellowship at Monash Health. This fellowship provided essential clinical skills and has fostered a life-long interest in improving patient access to trials, finding ways to better select therapies for patients with blood cancers and learning more about the patient’s experience throughout treatment.
Her specific interest in how patients experience their illness and treatment forms the basis for her research in improving patient outcomes. This research comes at a pivotal time in modern lymphoma management with an ever-increasing number of treatment options available and renewed focus on each patient’s journey.
This has led to her PhD on Patient Reported Outcomes (PROs) which will focus on the accurate documentation of the patient experience and learn how best to include this data for future clinical trial design, an essential component of obtaining excellent treatment outcomes. For this work she is the 2025 recipient of the Haematology Society of Australia and New Zealand and the Leukaemia Foundation New Investigator PhD Scholarship which will provide invaluable support throughout the PhD.
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Hormone receptor positive breast cancer and therapy resistance
Prof Elgene Lim is a medical oncologist at St Vincent’s Hospital and Head of the Connie Johnson Breast Cancer Research Lab at the Garvan Institute. Following his PhD at the Walter & Eliza Hall Institute where he identified the aberrant cells in carriers of the BRCA1 mutant gene, a hereditary breast cancer syndrome as the culprit cells giving rise to breast cancer, he furthered his research and clinical training at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School. He was awarded the National Breast Cancer Foundation Practitioner Fellowship in 2014 and returned from Boston to Australia. In 2017, he was awarded the inaugural National Breast Cancer Foundation Endowed Chair, and subsequently appointed the Principal Cancer Theme Lead at UNSW.
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Investigating invasive lobular carcinoma and metaplastic breast cancer sub-types
Assoc Prof McCart Reed is the scientific lead on an MRFF-funded (Medical Research Future Fund) genomics program investigating the potential for the application of Whole Genome Sequencing in the breast cancer care pathway in Australia, ‘Q-IMPROvE’. She applies genomics and spatial transcriptomics methodologies to archival clinical samples to understand the differences between tumour types and their potential for treatment. Amy is passionate about clinical research, biobanking and precision oncology. In addition to her breast cancer research portfolio, she is on the steering committee for the Brisbane Breast Bank and the Scientific Advisory Board for Breast Cancer Trials.
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Systems genetics to determine risk of developing diabetes complications
Professor Morahan invented the term “Systems Genetics” for the science field that examines how genetic variants can affect whole networks of genes and whole systems; there are now several laboratories and institutes of systems genetics around the world. He also developed the next-generation genetic resource, The Gene Mine, the most powerful of its type in the world, used globally in rapid mapping and identification of genes. Collaborators nationally and internationally have tested The Gene Mine for traits and diseases in which they specialise.
