New Zealand has worse cancer survival rates than Australia – and Associate Professor Ben Lawrence wants to turn that around.
| The first Head of the University of Auckland’s new Department of Cancer Sciences, Lawrence has a strong sense of what New Zealand needs to do to up its cancer treatment game.
He stepped down as clinical lead of oncology at Auckland Hospital to take up his new leadership role at the University and will continue working two days a week at the hospital. Lawrence’s vision is for the new department to launch the country’s first comprehensive cancer centre within the next decade. “The quality of cancer researchers and clinicians in New Zealand is extraordinary, but we don’t offer an environment that brings out the best in them. “We want to remove the barriers and provide a space where their abilities can shine,” he says. Lawrence aims to collaborate with cancer experts within the new department and across New Zealand to plan a new cancer care centre that brings together leading healthcare professionals, researchers and the community. The aim is to offer the best care to patients with all types of cancer – and that starts with research to develop better care strategies, he says. The new centre will include everything from research about prevention and screening, to developing new drugs in the lab and offering clinical trials for promising new treatments, he says. “Research shows cancer care is better in places that do cutting-edge research, and research is better in places that do clinical care, because researchers can understand the problems and ask the right research questions.” Lawrence says New Zealand spends less on cancer research and medicines than similar OECD countries. He expects significant philanthropic funding will be needed to turn the dream of a new cancer centre into a reality. He has already made a big difference to the lives of many New Zealanders with cancer – and may be familiar through his role in the documentary, Live and Let Dai, with comedian Dai Henwood, who has stage-four bowel cancer. With University of Auckland Professor Cris Print, Lawrence founded NETwork! in 2013, bringing together more than 100 cancer clinicians from around New Zealand. About 20 specialists from the group attend weekly meetings to discuss the best care for patients with neuroendocrine cancers. In 2021, NETwork! brought a new treatment for neuroendocrine cancer patients to Aotearoa, in collaboration with patient advocacy group Neuroendocrine Cancer New Zealand. Peptide Receptor Radionuclide Therapy (PRRT) is now making a “massive difference” to these patients, controlling their cancer without the toxic side effects caused by older treatments, he says. More recently, Lawrence founded the Molecular Tumour Board, which brings scientists and clinicians together to provide top-notch care for patients with all types of cancer in New Zealand. Over the years, he has won numerous awards and has offered expertise on cancer to the Ministry of Health and Health New Zealand. He has been president of the New Zealand Society for Oncology, served on the boards of Cancer Society Auckland Northland and the Gut Cancer Foundation, and been medical adviser for Neuroendocrine Cancer New Zealand. He’s not the only leader in the family – his sister, Anna Lawrence, was captain of the New Zealand hockey team from 1995 to 2000. Growing up in Christchurch and Auckland with a father who was a wool-buyer and a mother who worked as a laboratory technologist before she had children, medicine wasn’t an obvious career choice for Lawrence. But from the aged of 14, he began to discover the rewards of care work. During his high school years, he worked on Sunday nights in an aged care home, feeding those who couldn’t eat without help. Initially drawn to study psychology, he gained a Master of Science at Otago University, supporting himself through his studies with a part-time job caring for children with disabilities. One of Lawrence’s earliest memories is of visiting his grandfather shortly before his death from lung cancer, then his grandmother died of bowel cancer and his aunt died of breast cancer a few years later. During his training at medical school at the University of Auckland in 2004, Lawrence’s father died of brain cancer. All these losses influenced his decision to specialise in oncology. After winning a fellowship to Yale University in the United States in 2009, he launched his career specialising in gastrointestinal and neuroendocrine cancers. Research to try to improve cancer treatment has always been a vital part of Lawrence’s work. Much of his research has focused on identifying the genetic mutations driving neuroendocrine cancers, finding ways to target their weak spots, and offering the best treatments for individual patients. He is concerned that Māori have higher cancer rates and worse outcomes than other New Zealanders. “That’s a health system problem but it’s also a knowledge problem – so it’s a University of Auckland problem to solve.” Lawrence relishes the challenge of helping people with particularly complex health problems. “My job sounds tough – half my patients will die of cancer – but in terrible situations, people often discover resilience they didn’t know they had. “I get to see the best of human nature – and it’s amazing,” he says. |