Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre
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The Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, also known as the Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute, is a major centre for cancer treatment, professional oncologist training and oncology research in Melbourne, Australia. It is named after Sir Peter MacCallum.
The centre is Australia’s only public hospital dedicated to cancer treatment, research and education.[1] It is also one of the few cancer treatment facilities in the world which has a fully integrated clinical and laboratory program situated alongside a hospital. This facilitates the translation of research findings into clinical outcomes within the single site.
Research programs at the centre include the Australian Cancer Research Foundation (ACRF) Cancer Cell Biology Program[2] and the ACRF Victorian Centre for Functional Genomics in Cancer.[3]
The Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre offers much in the way of integrated services, including medical oncology and radiation oncology facilities and links with allied health services such as physiotherapy, occupational therapy, dietetics, speech therapy and social services.
History
The Victorian Cancer Institute's cancer hospital was given the title "Peter MacCallum Clinic" after the (then) Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Melbourne University, Peter MacCallum, who along with Rutherford Kaye-Scott had a significant role in its founding. At the time (c. 1949) it was a common practice not to inform patients that they had cancer. It was thought that because radiotherapy was also quite commonly used at that time to treat non-cancerous conditions such as severe acne, "strawberry birthmarks", frozen shoulders, keloid scars and also to provide a valuable and non-invasive means for medical sterilisation, the name "Peter MacCallum Clinic" would be much less threatening because the "clinic" could be "positioned" as a specialist radiotherapeutic centre rather than it being thought of as a dedicated cancer hospital.
Current location
Its main campus operates in East Melbourne with satellite services at Bendigo Base Hospital, Box Hill Hospital, Monash Medical Centre (Moorabbin campus, in East Bentleigh) and Sunshine Hospital in St Albans.
The East Melbourne campus is located at the site of the former St Andrew's Hospital (which was run by the Presbyterian Church), to which the (then) Peter MacCallum Clinic (which was formerly at the corner of William Street and Little Lonsdale Street) moved in the 1990s.
It is due to move to Parkville, Victoria, in 2016, where it will become part of the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre (VCCC) involving some shared services with the nearby Royal Melbourne Hospital, the Royal Women's Hospital and the Royal Children's Hospital.
See also
- Bio21 Institute
- Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health
- La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science
- Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research
