FEATURE A Team Leader in the Fight Against Cancer HKUMed has done admirable work in cancer research and management, particularly cancers affecting Asian populations such as liver and nasopharyngeal cancers. Those efforts recently received a further boost with the appointment of Professor Rina Hui Yee-man as Director of the new Centre of Cancer Medicine (CancerMed), who will prioritise a team-based, multidisciplinary approach to bring new treatments to patients and drive ground-breaking research. ‘We are in an exciting era to see basic and translational research expeditiously translated into clinically meaningful therapies for cancer patients,’ said Professor Hui. Professor Hui worked as a medical oncologist in Australia for 23 years, where she spearheaded many clinical trials and served as the Chair of oncology teaching at the University of Sydney. She specialises in lung and breast cancer management, and one of her most memorable achievements was a Phase I clinical trial in 2012 providing experimental immunotherapy to a metastatic lung cancer patient, who had exhausted all his treatment options. This patient and several others are still alive and well today. While she claims modestly that being at the right place at the right time was a key factor in her success, her achievement was built on years of establishing local and global collaborations and building up multi-disciplinary teams to manage cancer patients and to conduct clinical and translational research. ‘Multi-disciplinarity is the key to making further advancements in cancer research and cancer management. A lot of scientists and clinicians are doing really great jobs, but they can be even more effective in advancing knowledge further if they build strong collaborations,’ she said. This is the message she brings to HKUMed, where she took up her post in January. Although CancerMed does not have a physical base yet – that will come within the next three years when a dedicated University Block of the Cancer Centre opens at the new Grantham Hospital – she has already started to build on her vision, ‘as a centre is not necessarily a physical building, but is made up of a united group of experts and talents working closely together with common goals.’ Professor Hui is aiming to encourage more comprehensive multidisciplinary teams with cancer specialists from various departments including clinical oncology, medicine, surgery, radiology, pathology, as well as professionals such as palliative care physicians, psychooncologists and familial cancer geneticists, come together under tumour streams to optimise patients’ survival and quality of life, with timely diagnosis and earlier treatment initiation, as well as to provide psychological support to enhance survivorship. ‘Every cancer is a little ↓As the Director of the new Centre of Cancer Medicine, Professor Rina Hui Yee-man has started to build her vision in setting up a multidisciplinary team of cancer specialists. 12
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