NCCS clinicians win awards for clinical research

Every year, the prestigious National Medical Research Council (NMRC) awards recognise clinician-scientists and researchers who are doing impactful research to improve patient outcomes. In 2024, five clinician-scientists from the National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS) received NMRC awards to further their respective research studies. 

 

Commonly referred to as nose cancer, nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is the second most common cancer in adult Singaporean males aged between 40 to 49 years old. While radiation therapy and chemotherapy are used as systemic treatment for NPC, immunotherapy has recently emerged as a promising approach to manage the disease. However, patients can often develop resistance to treatment and why this happens is not well understood.

Professor Darren Lim, Senior Consultant, Department of Lung, Head & Neck and Genitourinary Medical Oncology, Division of Medical Oncology (DMO), NCCS, was conferred NMRC’s Clinician Scientist Award – Senior Investigator (CSA-SI) to investigate treatment resistance in NPC through a study called Resolving an ENIGMA (Elucidating ImmuNe ReprogrammIng in NasopharynGeal CarcinoMA). Prof Lim and his team plan to use advanced scientific tools to analyse patient tumour biopsies and blood samples to understand the biology of resistance and identify new approaches for treating NPC. 

“It is encouraging that we have new treatments for nasopharyngeal carcinoma, but until we know why patients sometimes develop resistance and find new ways to counter it, these treatments have limited effectiveness,” said Prof Lim who is also Director of Research at the SingHealth Duke-NUS Lung Centre.

 

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among females in Singapore and worldwide. While survival rates in Singapore have improved because of screening, early detection and treatment, disease outcomes vary between different ethnic groups, with Malay breast cancer patients faring worse.

Aiming to improve outcomes across ethnic groups, Associate Professor Yap Yoon Sim, Senior Consultant, Department of Breast & Gynaecological Medical Oncology, DMO, NCCS, and her team will study the data of breast cancer patients treated at SingHealth institutions across Singapore from 2000 to 2017 to determine the extent that ethnicity, treatment and biology plays in survival outcomes. This research is supported by a renewal of Assoc Prof Yap’s NMRC’s Clinician Scientist Award – Investigator (CSA-INV). 

“The insights we uncover can help promote equity in breast cancer outcomes and promote implementation of better education to encourage health-seeking behaviour, healthier lifestyles, and development of new treatment approaches,” said Assoc Prof Yap.

 

In her work as a palliative care clinician, Assistant Professor Grace Yang, Senior Consultant, Division of Supportive and Palliative Care (DSPC), NCCS, has witnessed the struggles of patients and their families when faced with progressive incurable illnesses such as advanced cancer. 

Current models of palliative care focus on advanced cancer patients who are close to end of life – when they and their families can only be passive recipients of care. To shift this paradigm of care, Asst Prof Yang was recently conferred NMRC’s HPHSR Clinician Scientist Award (HCSA-INV) to evaluate the effectiveness and implementation of ENABLE (Educate, Nurture, Advise, Before Life Ends), a proactive early palliative care model for cancer patients. ENABLE aims to intervene early so that patients and caregivers can be taught self-management and coping skills before they are in acute distress, so that they can be proactive participants in their care journey. 

“ENABLE addresses key questions in the palliative care research landscape, shedding light on what patients and their caregivers need most on the illness journey. It builds experience and expertise in implementation science for palliative care, which is vital to translate new knowledge from health services research into clinical practice,” said Asst Prof Yang.

Lung cancer is the third most common cancer in Singapore and the leading cause of cancer death in men and the third leading cause of cancer death in women. Genetic abnormalities in lung cancer are common and are targets for precision therapeutics.

 

To explore this, Assistant Professor Amit Jain, Senior Consultant, Department of Lung, Head & Neck and Genitourinary Medical Oncology, Division of Medical Oncology, NCCS, has been awarded NMRC’s Transition Award to study patients who have lung cancer with the KRAS genetic mutation. His team will investigate what drives this group of patients’ response to immune checkpoint inhibitors. They also aim to identify and characterise immune cells and build a library of genetic alterations that are targets for immune cells and immune cell receptors that direct immunotherapy. 

“This study will enhance our understanding of personal immune responses against KRAS mutant lung cancers and the establishment patient specific immune targets will lead directly to cancer vaccines and cell therapy strategies for this form of lung cancer,” said Dr Amit.

Patients with heart failure often have significant physical and psychosocial concerns. While palliative care can help support and improve the quality of life of these patients, it is currently implemented very late in these patients’ illness journeys. To address this gap, Assistant Professor Shirlyn Neo, Senior Consultant, DSPC, NCCS will be evaluating a new nurse-led model of palliative care for heart failure patients: Timely Interventions to Enable and Reach patients with Heart Failure, and their caregivers, with Palliative Care (TIER-HF-PC). 

The study, which is supported by NMRC’s Transition Award, will recruit 240 patients with heart failure and their caregivers who will be randomly allocated to TIER-HF-PC or standard care. The model will be evaluated in terms of effectiveness in improving quality of life, patient healthcare use, and other health outcomes such as spirituality, coping and healthcare cost. If found to be effective, TIER-HF-PC model will streamline the timeliness and delivery of palliative care interventions and help improve health outcomes of patients with heart failure and their caregivers.

“This award will further our study of the best ways to improve the quality of life for patients and their caregivers. What we learn from the heart failure journey can be translated to other illnesses, like cancer. We will also use this award to enhance the capabilities of our nurses so that more can be trained in palliative care principles,” said Asst Prof Neo. 

National research awards are important not just as recognition for years of hard work and effort, but their conferment supports future research and motivates recipients and their teams.