Page 14 - Luce 2023

P oint of View

Late in 2022, JCH
student, Sidney
Ruthven, had
the opportunity
to interview

distinguished
alumna Professor
Melissa Southey
OAM (1985).
Prof. Melissa Southey
Thank you so much, Professor Southey, for making the time environment; application of medical imaging; molecular
for this interview. You’re currently the Chair, Precision measurements (including genomics); observations of health
Medicine at Monash University, Director of Research, outcomes; health interventions; health economics and,
Monash Partners Comprehensive Cancer Consortium, more recently, a better understanding of human diversity. In
Research Associate (Honorary) Cancer Council Victoria my view, precision medicine will be the point from which
and a Professorial Fellow (Honorary) at The University of medical practice pivots from health crisis management to the
Melbourne. Can you please talk a little bit about these roles science of good health. The impact of precision medicine will
and how you go about managing them – there are so many! continue to increase into the future but most people engaging
with healthcare today are already benefiting from many of
In the most part these roles are fulfilled simultaneously. These these principles.
leadership roles are all about doing the most innovative and
impactful research possible, making new connections, and I understand that your most current research topic is
collaborating across disciplines. The multiple roles reflect the ‘Delivering Precision Medicine to Population-based Cancer
networks of research programmes in which I work. I drive Prevention’. How is this research progressing?
research within my own team at Monash University, link to
other local experts and institutions and work across the globe This is the title of a recent $3.2m award from the National
when we want to answer research questions that cannot be Health and Medical Research Council (Australia). This
answered by any research team alone. programme of work brings together three decades of my
research in cancer predisposition and focuses on how to best
I believe your studies across the years have been many and deliver cancer predisposition testing and cancer prevention
varied, to say the least. Can you please outline for us the to the population. To date, most people engaging with cancer
fields you have embraced? predisposition testing have a personal or family history of
the disease. It is important to bring this testing to more of the
My education and career have developed rather organically population as my work, and the work of others, has shown
– I have been very satisfied and extremely fortunate to have that the vast majority of young people who are at high risk of
been able to follow my interests and respond to opportunities developing cancer are not aware and are not engaging with
as they have arisen. The first undergraduate degree course cancer prevention strategies.
I enrolled in was at the Melbourne Conservatorium of
Music! I then moved to science and later to medicine for What does the future of precision medicine and cancer look
PhD studies. In the mid-1990s when my work started to like? How does this inform your research?
focus on identifying genetic causes of diseases, I studied a
Graduate Diploma in Intellectual Property Law. At that time Much of my work has been set in the context of identifying
the patenting of genes was a considerable legal and social cancer risk factors (especially genomic risk factors i.e. ‘cancer
controversy. Researchers were divided in their opinion and I genes’) and enabling cancer prevention for those identified to
needed a foundation on which to set my own compass and be at high risk of the disease. After three decades of research
navigate this often polarising topic. my programme is now more focused on integrating the
information and translating our findings into clinical practice
The term ‘precision medicine’ is used to explain medical for individual and population benefit. I have a developing
care designed to optimise the efficiency or therapeutic appreciation for implementation science and our capacity to
benefit for particular groups of patients, mostly by using measure the social and economic benefit of our research.
molecular (especially genomic) profiling. In your opinion The future of precision medicine in cancer care will include
how far away is precision medicine from regular utility in increased individualisation of risk assessments, risk reduction
cancer and other health fields? How does it benefit people strategies, treatments and survivorship experiences – led by
today? an increased awareness of diversity (in host, environment and
disease).
Precision medicine (albeit without this label) has been
practised for generations. It is a broad and multifaceted What advice would you provide to someone aspiring
discipline that includes the creation of new evidence for to conduct research in precision medicine, cancer or
the development of new strategies for disease prevention genomics?
and treatment via a number of considerations: lifestyle and

14 LUCE Number 21 2022