September 2023 NCICT Newsletter

Dear all,

September was a busy month for NCIC with plenty of meetings and activities. A big thank you and shout out to the whole NCIC team who had successfully hosted the Taiwanese visitors, Dr Ting-Yu Yen (paediatric ID physician) and Shih-Han Chen (Research Nurse) from National University of Taiwan.

Fellow of IDSA

I am delighted to share that I have been named a Fellow by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA). The IDSA is an organisation of over 12,000 physicians, scientists, public health experts and other health care professionals dedicated to promoting health through excellence in infectious diseases research, education, prevention and patient care. I look forward to working and learning alongside them. For more information, visit www.idsociety.org.

NCIC Symposium and Workshop

Next month we will focus on the NCIC Symposium and Workshop. If you can, please join us for a full day symposium providing a comprehensive update on new pathways of care and novel interventions to deliver best practice care for treating and preventing infection in cancer. This symposium will be practical and interactive, with the opportunity to speak with experts in infectious diseases, health services research and implementation to help tailor interventions to your setting. More details and registration link available below.

---

“I wanted to extend my heartfelt thanks for the two-week training program you provided. It was an absolute honour to have the opportunity to visit Australia, explore Melbourne, train at Peter MacCallum, RMH, and meet the NCIC team.”

- Shih-Han Chen, Research Nurse National University of Taiwan

---

NCIC Symposium and Workshop

In person, Friday 6th October 2023
10am-4pm, Graduate House, UoM

Pathways to better infection care in cancer

Venue: Graduate house, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.  220 Leicester Street Carlton VIC 3053

Target audience: Medical, nursing, pharmacy practitioners involved in cancer care, including regional centres.

Ticket price: $150 for medical practitioners, $50 for nurses/pharmacist/allied health

---

Other upcoming events

VIDS Seminar

Monday 2nd October
12:30pm - 1:30pm AEST

“Update on CMV in the immunocompromised host”
Presented by Dr Michelle Yong

ANZMIG Mycology
Masterclass 2023

2nd to 4th November

NCIC Presenters:
Dr Abby Douglas, A/Prof Ben Teh and Dr Michelle Yong

---

Feature Paper

Consensus position statement on advancing the standardised reporting of infection events in immunocompromised patients.

Teh BW, Mikulska M, Averbuch D, de la Camara R, Hirsch HH, Akova M, Ostrosky-Zeichner L, Baddley JW, Tan BH, Mularoni A, Subramanian AK, La Hoz RM, Marinelli T, Boan P, Aguado JM, Grossi PA, Maertens J, Mueller NJ, Slavin MA.

The Lancet Infectious Diseases

“This is a consensus statement regarding the need to adequately capture information about infection in clinical trials and registries related to immunocompromised patients including cancer and transplant patients.  A/Prof Ben Teh led this work along with me and two colleagues from Europe: Prof Mikulska (Italy) and Prof Mueller (Switzerland) and it was endorsed and contributed to by 7 international societies including US and European groups focused on care of immunocompromised patients as well as our Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases.” - Prof Monica Slavin

“While there is still a lot to do to improve our reporting of infections, this work is an important start providing a tool to enable researchers to pool research data and ensure interstudy comparability. This will move research in this field forwards.” - A/Prof Ben Teh

---

Recent publications

Consensus position statement on advancing the standardised reporting of infection events in immunocompromised patients. Teh et al

Goals to score: The need for a minimum reporting dataset in studies of infection events in immunocompromised patients. Teh et al

Invasive aspergillosis in adult patients in Australia and New Zealand: 2017-2020. Tio et al

Recommendations on prevention of infections in patients with T-cell lymphomas: a narrative review and synthesis. Reynolds et al

---

Kind regards

Prof Monica Slavin, MBBS, MD, FRACP, FAAHMS
Head, Department Infectious Disease, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre

Professor of Infection in Cancer and Transplantation, University of Melbourne Department of Infectious Diseases and the Sir Peter MacCallum Department of Oncology

Director, National Centre for Infections in Cancer and Transplantation

August 2023 NCICT Newsletter

---

View the August NCIC Seminar

Prof Karin Thursky and Mr Nikhil Singh

Exploring the Pros and Cons of Fluoroquinolone Prophylaxis in Neutropenic Fever HERE.

---

World Sepsis Day,

Sept 13th

We are also hosting World Sepsis Day activities on Sept 13th, with plenty of cupcakes and give away’s. Keep your eyes out for our AMS NP Belinda Lambros if you are in the precinct.

---

ANZMIG Mycology Masterclass 2023

2nd - 4th November

NCIC Presenters: A/Prof Ben Teh and Dr Michelle Yong

Dear all,

September is looking like another busy month for NCIC with plenty of upcoming meetings and activities. Next week I will be giving the NCIC Seminar for September on New Antifungals. Sept 7th at 12.30pm. You can register for the zoom link below. 

International Visitors

September is also a busy month for visitors to our centre. We will be hosting Drs Galadriel Pellejero from Spain,  Dr Daphne Lau from Hong Kong and Dr Yan and Shih Han Chen from Taiwan. Drs Pellejero and Lau will be joining us for several months to observe our clinical practice and AMS activities in particular. While Dr Yan and Shih Han will be joining us for 2 weeks to learn how we run our clinical trial group. Welcome to all our International visitors!

Eureka Prize

Congratulations also to our colleagues at the Doherty Professor Katherine Kedzierska, PhD FAHMS and Dr Oanh Nguyen on your much deserved Eureka prize! It is wonderful collaborating with your group and the insights into vaccine responses in cancer are so valuable to our patients. Enjoy this wonderful recognition of your contribution to science.

---

NCIC Symposium and Workshop

In person, Friday 6th October 2023, 10am-4pm, Graduate House, UoM

Pathways to better infection care in cancer

A full day symposium providing a comprehensive update on new pathways of care and novel interventions to deliver best practice care for treating and preventing infection in cancer. This symposium will be practical and interactive, with the opportunity to speak with experts in infectious diseases, health services research and implementation to help tailor interventions to your setting.

Venue: Graduate house, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.  220 Leicester Street Carlton VIC 3053

Target audience: Medical, nursing, pharmacy practitioners involved in cancer care, including regional centres.

Ticket price: $150 for medical practitioners, $50 for nurses/pharmacist/allied health

---

Feature Paper

Risky business: The impact of antimicrobial prescribing on multidrug-resistant Gram-negative BSIs in acute myeloid leukemia patients.

Transplant Infectious Disease

Beatrice Z Sim, Monica A Slavin, Abby P Douglas

The editorial written by our fellow Dr Beatrice Sim under the guidance of Dr Abby Douglas and Prof Monica Slavin discusses a paper in TID correlating duration of antibiotics and emergence of resistant gram negative infection in AML patients. The theme of shorter duration of antibiotics is also discussed in the paper by Imlay, Laundy et al and is one we are focussing on with upcoming studies in collaboration with our haematology colleagues. A/Prof Gab Haeusler is already conducting an electronic medical record-embedded randomised clinical trial comparing shorter course antibiotics to standard course in children with fever and neutropenia at RCH and MCRI and we are currently in the process of designing a similar study in adult patients. This topic is very relevant to our patients and we aim to soon add to the evidence around stopping antibiotics early in stable patients with fever and neutropenia.

---

Recent publications

Shorter antibiotic courses in the immunocompromised: the impossible dream? Imlay et al

The antifungal pipeline for invasive fungal diseases: what does the future hold? Neoh et al

Parvovirus B19 in stem cell transplantation. Kinsella et al

Invasive fungal infections after CLAG-M/CLAG chemotherapy for acute myeloid leukemia and high-grade myeloid neoplasms. Lindsay et al

Invasive aspergillosis in liver transplant recipients. Melenotte et al

Multidrug-resistant Enterobacterales infections in abdominal solid organ transplantation. Pilmis et al

Risky business: The impact of antimicrobial prescribing on multidrug-resistant Gram-negative BSIs in acute myeloid leukemia patients. Sim et al

Rezafungin versus caspofungin for treatment of candidaemia and invasive candidiasis (ReSTORE): a multicentre, double-blind, double-dummy, randomised phase 3 trial. Thompson et al

---

Kind regards

Prof Monica Slavin, MBBS, MD, FRACP, FAAHMS
Head, Department Infectious Disease, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre

Professor of Infection in Cancer and Transplantation, University of Melbourne Department of Infectious Diseases and the Sir Peter MacCallum Department of Oncology

Director, National Centre for Infections in Cancer and Transplantation

July 2023 NCICT Newsletter

Dear all,

We are very proud to announce two new grants, one to Prof Leon Worth, “Appling artificial intelligence for surveillance of infections in cancer”, and one to Prof Karin Thursky “Optimising real world data use to drive cancer care delivery and research”. Both were awarded through the MRFF National Critical Research Infrastructure Initiative, to a total value of over $5.5 million over the next 5 years. Congratulations to both, we are looking forward to working closely with NCIC collaborators at RMIT (School of Computer Science), Biogrid, Melbourne Health and UoM (Centre for digital transformation of Health) on these initiatives.  These initiatives will be crucial to driving research froward in the current era of data science, big data and artificial intelligence.

Our very own AMS NP Belinda Lambros represented NCICT in Adelaide at the Cancer Nurses Society of Australia (CNSA) annual meeting, giving a workshop in Advanced Practice of ID. Great work Bel!

Congratulations also to NCIC PhD Dr Beatrice Sim on her appointment to the ASID council as a new representative.

Seminars and Journal Club

NCICT Journal Club

Monthly, Fridays 12 pm

The next NCICT Journal Club series is this Friday July 28th 12-1 pm with NCICT NP Belinda Lambros and nurse PhD candidate Alison Lemoh presenting. Sign up for a live link to the NCIC Journal Club series HERE.

Papers:

Quality of life and mortality in older adults with sepsis after one-year follow up: A prospective cohort study demonstrating the significant impact of frailty. Dong et al

A call for better doctor nurse collaboration: A qualitative study of the experiences of junior doctors and nurses in escalating care for deteriorating ward patients. Legido-Quigley et al

Factors influencing the activation of the rapid response system for clinically deteriorating patients by frontline ward clinicians: a systematic review. Chua et al

NCICT Seminar series

Upcoming

Thursday August 3rd, 12.30-1.30

Exploring the Pros and Cons of Fluoroquinolone Prophylaxis in Neutropenic Fever

Prof Karin Thrursky and Nikhil Singh

Register for link HERE

Previous

Dr Michelle Yong: New developments in managing CMV in transplant recipients

View HERE

---

Feature Paper

COVID-19 infection among patients with cancer in Australia from 2020 to 2022: a national multicentre cohort study

The Lancet Regional Health - Western Pacific

Victoria G. Hall, Beatrice Z. Sim, Chhay Lim, Christopher Hocking, Teddy Teo, Naomi Runnegar, Peter Boan, Christopher H. Heath, Natalie Rainey, Megan Lyle, Christopher Steer, Eunice Liu, Cassandra Doig, Kate Drummond, Patrick G.P. Charles, Katharine See, Lyn-Li Lim, Omar Shum, Narin Bak, Sue-Anne Mclachlan…Benjamin W. Teh.

The largest study to date into the pandemic’s impact on Australian cancer patients - a uniquely vulnerable group - has found the rate of deaths did not meet international projections and attributes the wide uptake of COVID vaccinations, less severe omicron variant and early intervention antiviral treatments, as saving lives. 

The study led by NCICT PhD candidate Dr Victoria Hall and Dr Ben Teh assessed 620 cancer patients across 15 Australian hospitals who caught COVID-19 from March 2020 to April 2022. 

 All-cause mortality in these patients in the 100 days after their COVID-19 infection was 10.6% overall – well below the mortality figures seen internationally of 30% to 38% for patients with blood cancers, considered one of the highest risk groups.

 “We found overall that one in ten Australian cancer patients who caught COVID-19 died within 100 days of the infection, either as a result of COVID-19 or an unrelated cause, and while this is a significant loss of human life it is well short of what was seen elsewhere for this vulnerable patient group,”  

“Contributing factors include that most Australian cancer patients caught COVID-19 in early 2022 during the Omicron wave and after COVID vaccines had become widely available, and there were also measures in place to rapidly detect infections and provide early protective antiviral treatments to this group.”

Dr Hall said that this study found that the Omicron variant also appears to be less severe than previous strains in patients with cancer, similar to what has been suggested in the general population. The average age of Australian cancer patients who caught COVID-19 was 63.5 years, with slightly more men (50.6%) and overall, 73.4% were vaccinated against COVID-19.

The rate of deaths declined over the course of the pandemic, with all-cause mortality in 2020 at 25.6% but in 2022 it was 8.1% in patients with cancer and COVID-19.

 “Just as we saw deaths in this vulnerable group decline over time there were also consistent drops in the rate of patients needing a hospital stay of more than 24 hours, those who required oxygen or an ICU stay, and those who required mechanical ventilation,” Dr Hall said. 

---

Kind regards

Prof Monica Slavin, MBBS, MD, FRACP, FAAHMS
Head, Department Infectious Disease, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre

Professor of Infection in Cancer and Transplantation, University of Melbourne Department of Infectious Diseases and the Sir Peter MacCallum Department of Oncology

Director, National Centre for Infections in Cancer and Transplantation

May 2023 NCICT Newsletter

Dear all,

 April was an incredibly busy month for conference attendance.

 ECCMID

I was honoured to give the opening plenary lecture (entitled Frontiers in the diagnosis and management of infections in the immunocompromised host) at the European Conference on Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID); the largest international Infectious Diseases meeting attended by 15,000 delegates, May 2023, Coppenhagen. 

Also present to represent Peter Mac and the Infectious diseases research being conducted by the National Centre for Infections in Cancer and Transplantation (NCICT) were Prof Karin Thursky, A/Prof Gabrielle Haeusler, Drs Michelle Yong, Victoria Hall, Daniel Yeoh, Gemma Reynolds and Ms Kar Yee Yong. All listed presented research and Dr Ben Teh also attended to support presentations by PhD students.

ASID

We had 3 PhD candidates presenting as well as one masters of public health student represent at ASID. Highlights include being awarded a lifetime member and having my name on the Adelaide oval scoreboard

Otherhighlights were Dr Shio Yen Tio winning the 2023 ANZMIG Mycology SIG award and meeting Professor Glaukenflucken.

@NCICancer twitter has now reached influencer status with over 1000 followers

May also saw NCICT Drs, Michelle Yong, Liv Smibert, Beatrice Sim, Megan Crane and Shio Yen Tio attend the Fred Hutch Symposium on Infections in the immunocompromised Host in Seattle and Rachel Woolstencroft, Drs Ben Teh, Zoe Neoh and Karin Thursky present at the Peter Mac Research Symposium. Jason Trubiano held a highly successful drug allergy symposium at the Doherty shortly after his appointment to full Professor. Congratulations Prof Trubiano!

Seminars and Journal Club

NCICT Journal Club

Monthly, Fridays 12 pm

The third of the 2023 monthly NCICT Journal Club series is this Friday June 2nd 12-1 pm with Dr. Morgan Rose presenting. Sign up for a live link to the NCIC Journal Club series HERE.

NCICT Seminar series

Thursday June 8th, 12.30-1.30

Dr Michelle Yong: New developments in managing CMV in transplant recipients

Register for link

---

Feature Paper

Current epidemiology and clinical features of Cryptococcus infection in patients without HIV infection: a multicentre study in 46 hospitals from Australia and New Zealand.

Clin Infect Dis. 2023 May 26:ciad321. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciad321. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 37235212.

Coussement J, Heath CH, Roberts MB, Lane RJ, Spelman T, Smibert OC, Longhitano A, Morrissey O, Nield B, Tripathy M, Davis JS, Kennedy KJ, Lynar SA, Crawford LC, Crawford SJ, Smith BJ, Gador-Whyte AP, Haywood R, Mahony AA, Howard JC, Walls GB, O'Kane GM, Broom MT, Keighley CL, Bupha-Intr O, Cooley L, O'Hern JA, Jackson JD, Morris AJ, Bartolo C, Tramontana AR, Grimwade KC, Au Yeung V, Chean R, Woolnough E, Teh BW, Chen SC, Slavin MA; Australian and New Zealand study group for cryptococcosis in patients without HIV infection.

During his 2 years at NCIC in Melbourne, visiting ID physician Dr Julien Coussement completed this study of cryptococcosis in patients without HIV infection showing that in Australia and New Zealand this is by far the most common population in which cryptococcosis is seen. Whilst around 60% of this population have a recognised form of immunocompromise, the rest do not. Signs and symptoms may be subtle, or not present at all, as evidenced by the 16% of cases where cryptococcosis was an incidental finding on imaging performed for another reason. Interestingly, in this population CNS involvement was often predicted by a high serum cryptococcal antigen or fungemia. This work helps our understanding of the infection outside of the population of people living with HIV. Congratulations Julian for co-ordinating the 46 sites in Australia and New Zealand-no mean feat! Many thanks to all our collaborators who are acknowledged as authors or as members of the Australian and New Zealand study group for cryptococcosis in patients without HIV infection in the journal and on-line.

---

Kind regards

Prof Monica Slavin, MBBS, MD, FRACP, FAAHMS
Head, Department Infectious Disease, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre

Professor of Infection in Cancer and Transplantation, University of Melbourne Department of Infectious Diseases and the Sir Peter MacCallum Department of Oncology

Director, National Centre for Infections in Cancer and Transplantation

March 2023 NCICT Newsletter

Dear all,

For this month’s newsletter I am pleased to feature our newly promoted General Manager, Infectious Diseases, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre- Dr Megan Crane PhD, MIDI. Megan began with us in 2017 as the Research Manager for the newly awarded NCIC Centre for Research Excellence with 10 years’ experience as a laboratory Post Doc in Immunology. Over her last 6 years as Research Manager, she has been instrumental in developing and implementing the strategic, operational and business plans of the department, growing the department from 10 people with an annual operating budget of $500,000 to a multidisciplinary clinical research team of 36 with an annual budget of $2 million. During this time Megan also completed a Masters of Infectious Disease Intelligence (UNSW).   I am extremely pleased to have supported Megan in her promotion to General Manager of ID at Peter Mac, a well deserved reflection of her hard work and commitment to world’s best cancer care.  

Congratulations Megan, we look forward to continued growth and development of the National Centre for Infections in Cancer and Transplantation.

Congratulations also to Drs Shio Yen Tio and Beatrice Sim on being successful recipients of an  Abstract and Travel Stipend Award - 4th Symposium on Infectious Diseases in the Immunocompromised Host, to present their work at Fred Hutch, Seattle in May this year. Drs Sim and Tio and other NCICT researchers will be attending to share experience and build collaborations with the international transplant infectious diseases community. We are also looking forward to seeing many of our ID colleagues at ASID 2023 this weekend and will have 3 abstracts presented by our research team.

We also have 7 abstracts to be presented at ECCMID and I will be giving a keynote lecture on Frontiers in Infection in the ICH.  Well done to the team for having abstracts accepted at these 3 important meetings.

---

Seminars and Journal Club

NCICT Journal Club

Monthly, Fridays 12 pm

The second of the 2023 monthly NCICT Journal Club series is this Friday March 31st 12-1pm with Dr. Gemma Reynolds (paper) and Dr. Pedro Puerta (Fungal Infection in ICH) .Sign up for a live link to the NCIC Journal Club series HERE.

You can now view the recording of Prof Graeme Forrest who gave a fantastic presentation at the NCICT Seminar Series on AMS in TID HERE

The Straight and Marrow Podcast

Podcast | Straight and Marrow

Dr Michelle Yong (guest episode 13), an infectious diseases expert, answers all of our questions about infectious diseases in bone marrow transplant patients. We discuss neutrophils, cytomegalovirus, preventative measures and discuss what is the real “F” word in transplantation.

---

Publication highlight

Robust SARS-CoV-2 T cell responses with common TCRαβ motifs towards COVID-19 vaccines in haematological malignancy patients impacting B cell immunity

Thi H O Nguyen, Louise C Rowntree, Lilith F Allen, Brendon Y Chua, Lukasz Kedzierski, Chhay Lim, Masa Lasica, G Surekha Tennakoon, Natalie R Saunders, Megan Crane, Lynette Chee, John F Seymour, Mary Ann Anderson, Ashley Whitechurch, E Bridie Clemens, Wuji Zhang, So Young Chang, Jennifer R Habel, Xiaoxiao Jia, Hayley A McQuilten, Anastasia A Minervina, Mikhail V Pogorelyy, Priyanka Chaurasia, Jan Petersen, Tejas Menon, Luca Hensen, Jessica Neil, Francesca L Mordant, Hyon-Xhi Tan, Aira F Cabug, Adam K Wheatley, Stephen J Kent, Kanta Subbarao, Theo Karapanagiotidis, Han Huang, Lynn K Vo, Natalie L Cain, Suellen Nicholson, Florian Krammer, Grace Gibney, Fiona James, Janine M Trevillyan, Jason A Trubiano, Jeni Mitchell, Britt Christensen, Katherine A Bond, Deborah A Williamson, Jamie Rossjohn, Jeremy Chase Crawford, Paul G Thomas, Karin A Thursky, Monica A Slavin, Constantine S Tam, Benjamin W Teh, Katherine Kedzierska

Published in Cell Reports Medicine (preprints), led by University of Melbourne Professor Katherine Kedzierska (Doherty Institute), in collaboration with Associate Professor Benjamin Teh, Professor Monica Slavin, Surekha Tennakoon, Natalie Suanders, Dr Megan Crane  and Professor Jason Trubiano (NCICT).

Despite being heavily immunocompromised, haematology patients generate strong cellular immune responses against SARS-CoV-2 after vaccination, on par with that of healthy individuals. The research team undertook the most comprehensive analysis of adaptive SARS-CoV-2 immunity to date in haematology patients of varying diseases and treatments across three doses of COVID-19 vaccination in comparison to healthy individuals.

Professor Kedzierska says that the study provides key insights for future immunisation strategies with vaccines such as influenza which predominantly induce B cell immune responses.

“What we have shown is that people with co-morbidities that have a heavily impacted B cell immune arm, can have an mRNA vaccine to elicit T cells and give them that extra level of protection,” Professor Kedzierska says

Associate Professor Teh says this research is important for clinicians working with blood cancer patients.

“Clinicians can be confident that it is safe and beneficial for their patients, who are heavily immunocompromised and vulnerable to severe COVID-19 infection, to receive vaccination against SARS-CoV-2. Regardless of their diseases and treatments, COVID-19 vaccination generates strong T cell immunity in this group,” Associate Professor Teh says.

---

Recent Publications

Survey of treatment practices for immunocompromised patients with COVID-19 in Australasia.

Moso MA, Sasadeusz J, Morrissey CO, Bond K, Guy S, Slavin MA, Dendle C.Intern Med J. 2023 Mar 17. doi: 10.1111/imj.16064. Online ahead of print.PMID: 36929677

 Invasive aspergillosis in liver transplant recipients.

Melenotte C, Aimanianda V, Slavin M, Aguado JM, Armstrong-James D, Chen YC, Husain S, Van Delden C, Saliba F, Lefort A, Botterel F, Lortholary O.Transpl Infect Dis. 2023 Mar 16:e14049. doi: 10.1111/tid.14049. Online ahead of print.PMID: 36929539 Review.

 Infectious complications of bispecific antibody therapy in patients with multiple myeloma.

Sim BZ, Longhitano A, Er J, Harrison SJ, Slavin MA, Teh BW.Blood Cancer J. 2023 Mar 10;13(1):34. doi: 10.1038/s41408-023-00808-8.PMID: 36894539 Free PMC article. No abstract available

View all NCICT publications HERE

---

Kind regards

Prof Monica Slavin, MBBS, MD, FRACP, FAAHMS
Head, Department Infectious Disease, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre

Professor of Infection in Cancer and Transplantation, University of Melbourne Department of Infectious Diseases and the Sir Peter MacCallum Department of Oncology

Director, National Centre for Infections in Cancer and Transplantation

Feb 2023 NCIC Newsletter

Dear all,

I was extremely honoured recently to be appointed Professor of Infection in Cancer and Transplantation, University of Melbourne's Department of Infectious Diseases and the Sir Peter MacCallum Department of Oncology. This position consolidates our transition towards an all encompassing National Centre for Infections in Cancer and Transplantation. Keep an eye out on our social media for a new program of events and branding incorporating Cancer and Transplantation.

I would also like to congratulate Prof Karin Thursky, who was made a Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Digital Health (AIDH) earlier this month. AIDH is Australasia’s peak body for digital health, representing a united voice for health informatics and digital health leaders and practitioners. Thank you for your leadership Professor Thursky– a wonderful recognition of your trailblazing work in establishing the National Centre for Antimicrobial Stewardship and progressing the NCIC’s digital and connected health program of work.

---

NCIC Seminar Series

Prof Graeme Forrest

AMS in TID

March 16, 12.30pm

Graeme Forrest, MBBS, is a Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine, Section of Infectious Diseases at Rush University Medical Center, Editor-in-Chief (EiC) of ASM’s Clinical Microbiology Reviews. Prof Forrest Forrest’s research focuses on antimicrobial stewardship and resistance in immunocompromised hosts. Graeme will be presenting on  " AMS in Transplant infectious diseases" Sign up for the live link HERE. 

---

NCIC Journal Club

Monthly, Fridays 12 pm

The first of the 2023 monthly NCIC Journal Club series begins Friday March 3rd 12-1pm with Dr. Abby Douglas and Ms. Anna Khanina each presenting a paper TBA. Sign up for a live link to the NCIC Journal Club series HERE.

---

Publication highlight

Detecting evidence of invasive fungal infections in cytology and histopathology reports enriched with concept-level annotations 

Vlada Rozova, Anna Khanina, Jasmine C. Teng,  Joanne S.K. Teh, Leon J. Worth, Monica A. Slavin, Karin A. Thursky, Karin Verspoor.

Invasive fungal infections (IFIs) are particularly dangerous to high-risk patients with haematological malignancies and are responsible for excessive mortality and delays in cancer therapy. Surveillance of IFI in clinical settings offers an opportunity to identify potential risk factors and evaluate new therapeutic strategies. Existing manual infection surveillance processes are time- and resource-intensive.

Supported by the NHMRC project grant MEETING THE CHALLENGES OF INVASIVE FUNGAL INFECTION: ANTIFUNGAL STEWARDSHIP AND EFFECTIVE SURVEILLANCE IN HIGH-RISK GROUPS, we aim to develop a system for automated IFI surveillance by leveraging electronic medical records and developing artificial intelligence methodologies.

This work, published in a recent edition of Journal of Biomedical Informatics, demonstrates how cytology and histopathology reports can be automatically analysed using natural language processing to detect the presence of IFI. Given its strong performance, our tool will play a key role in the broader project of automated detection of IFI to support timely and accurate infection surveillance.

This NHMRC project is led by Karin Thursky and Anna Khanina in collaboration with Karin Verspoor and Vlada Rozova at the School of Computing Technologies, RMIT University.

---

Recent publications

B. Sim et al A multi-centre retrospective study of Nocardia speciation and antimicrobial susceptibility in Queensland

Chin Fen Neoh, et al Invasive Scedosporium and Lomentospora prolificans infections in Australia: a multicentre retrospective cohort study | Open Forum Infectious Diseases

V Hall and B Teh Learning how to treat coronavirus disease 2019 in hematopoietic stem cell transplant patients

B. Sim et al SARS‐CoV‐2 seropositivity in renal transplant patients administered intravenous immunoglobulin

Lindsay J, et al Invasive Fungal Infections After CLAG-M/CLAG Chemotherapy for Acute Myeloid Leukemia and High-Grade Myeloid Neoplasms.

Raad II, … Slavin M, Teh B, et al, International multicenter study comparing COVID-19 in patients with cancer to patients without cancer: impact of risk factors and treatment modalities on survivorship.

All NCIC publications can be found HERE

---

Kind regards

Prof Monica Slavin, MBBS, MD, FRACP, FAAHMS
Head, Department Infectious Disease, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre

Professor of Infection in Cancer and Transplantation, University of Melbourne Department of Infectious Diseases and the Sir Peter MacCallum Department of Oncology

Director, National Centre for Infections in Cancer

Jan 2023 NCIC Newsletter

Dear all,

It was wonderful to reconnect with everybody at the November 2022 NCIC-Synergy Investigator meeting, where we set out a road map for the next 5 years. I think we can all agree that our top priority is to expand our outreach and make the NCIC a truly National Centre. Many of the programs and pathways we have developed over the last few years at Peter Mac are now ready to be rolled out to other centres where cancer patients are managed for infections. The road map we have developed includes greater engagement with metro and regional centres across Australia, building on the networks we have worked hard to develop over the last 5 years through projects such as PROSECCO, CSMART and the CRE and continuing to develop our advanced trainees and visiting fellows.

All the details are on our new look website which is designed to be a one stop shop for all the implementation toolkits and guidelines we have developed for management of infections in kids, allergy, clinical trials and research. Also available on the website are links to the 2023 events calendar calendar. The schedule of events in 2023 include a Friday lunch Journal Club hosted by NCIC PhD students, a Symposium in November (details TBA) and monthly NCIC seminars the first of which I am pleased to announce is Prof Graeme Forrest. Get the meeting link HERE

Graeme Forrest, MBBS, is a Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine, Section of Infectious Diseases at Rush University Medical Center, Editor-in-Chief (EiC) of ASM’s Clinical Microbiology Reviews. Prof Forrest Forrest’s research focuses on antimicrobial stewardship and resistance in immunocompromised hosts. Graeme will be presenting on  " AMS in Transplant infectious diseases" followed by lunch and discussion with fellows interested in a career in TID (rsvp for lunch here). 

2023 will see NCIC begin the rollout of our national strategy. Beginning close to home with a series of national clinical interest group case series (request link) and a monthly journal club run by NCIC PhD students. Keep up to date with NCIC seminars here.

We are anticipating a strong NCIC presence at upcoming national and international conferences including ASID, ECCMID and the 4th Symposium on Infectious Diseases in the Immunocompromised Host, Fred Hutchinson cancer research centre, Seattle. ASID will see the inaugural meeting of the Infection in Immunocompromised Host Special Interest Group.  There will be an education day prior to ASID on Sunday April 2nd organised with The Transplant Infectious Diseases section of the Transplantation Society.  Several NCIC speakers will feature along with international speakers.  View the program and register HERE

I have been invited to deliver a keynote speech at ECCMID, Copenhagen on  Frontiers in the diagnosis and management of infections in the immunocompromised, and chair and contribute to a panel discussion of management of fungal infections at the 4th Symposium on Infectious diseases in the ICH, Fred Hutchinson. Both International conferences are offering scholarships to advanced trainees and I urge you all to consider an application.

Finally, please see the latest American Society for Transplantation and Cellular Therapy Series, for the latest in Management Management of Invasive Candidiasis in Hematopoietic Cell Transplant Recipients. All NCIC publications can be found HERE.

Wishing you all a productive year!

Kind Regards

Prof Monica Slavin, MBBS, MD, FRACP, FAAHMS
Head, Department Infectious Disease, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre

Lead, Immunocompromised Host service, Royal Melbourne Hospital

Director, National Centre for Infections in Cancer

Archived newsletters

Please access our old newsletters HERE

Is it safe to discontinue empirical antimicrobial therapy (EAT) for febrile neutropenia in patients with haematological malignancies once there were signs of clinical recovery?

This study aimed to determine if it was safe to discontinue empirical antimicrobial therapy (EAT) for febrile neutropenia in patients with haematological malignancies once there were signs of clinical recovery.

Adults with haematological malignancies or haemopoietic stem-cell transplantation recipients, with high-risk febrile neutropenia were split into two groups; those who had EAT withdrawn once they were without fever for 72hrs or more with signs of clinical recovery and those that had EAT withdrawn once their neutrophils had recovered (0·5 × 10⁹ cells per L or higher). The study concludes that EAT can be discontinued safely after 72 h of apyrexia and clinical recovery. The benefit of this approach would be in reducing unnecessary exposure to antimicrobials.

A new model of care for Australia

Published this month in Supportive Care Cancer, we report on the implementation of a nurse led program sending patients at low risk of medical complications from neutropenic fever following chemo, home,  to be managed in an outpatient setting.

Read the full study HERE

Our results show a reduction in median length of hospital stay from 4.0 to 1.1 days and a reduction in admission cost from $8,580 to $2,360 with a net cost benefit of $71,895. Not to mention that there's "No Place Like Home".