Your participation in will support groundbreaking research and clinical trials, leading to new treatments at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research (QIMR) one of Australia’s largest and most successful medical research institutes.

With more than half of its research dedicated to cancer, QIMR is improving our understanding about how and why cancers develop. Currently, QIMR researchers are investigating the causes of more than 13 cancers including skin, prostate, colorectal, breast, ovarian, lung and lymphoma. The aim is to develop better diagnostics as well as new, targeted drugs, vaccines, and immunotherapies. These treatments have the potential to increase survival rates, and reduce the side-effects of anti-cancer therapies.



In 2001, QIMR opened the Clive Berghofer Cancer Research Centre (CBCRC), a comprehensive cancer research centre unparalleled in Australia. The CBCRC helped accelerate QIMR’s efforts to transform breakthrough cancer research into life-saving, real world applications.

In February 2010, QIMR began construction on the Smart State Medical Research Centre, a new 13 floor research facility which will further increase the Institute’s research capacity and unify the Institute. Upon completion in early 2012, the facility will accommodate 20 new research laboratories and attract an additional 400 scientists and students, increasing QIMR’s staff capacity by more than 60%.

You can play an important role in the journey of medical discovery! Your support of will help QIMR continue the life-saving research of today leading to the breakthrough cancer care of tomorrow. Your efforts will bring hope and help to thousands in need across Australia, and throughout the world.

In Australia, almost 1 in 3 deaths are due to cancer, and this proportion will continue to rise as the population ages. QIMR’s research is undertaken to identify the environmental and genetic factors that cause cancer and investigate methods of early diagnosis, potential treatment and factors that affect survival. The aim is to reduce the burden of cancer by translating research into policy and practice.

Just of few of QIMR’s accomplishments:

• Identified five genes that influence the risk of developing breast cancer.
• Undertaken immunotherapy trials in which the body’s own defence system is bolstered to fight cancer.
• Discovered the human liver fluke (Opisthorchis viverrini) contributes to the development of liver cancer by secreting granulin.
• Contributed to the development of a topical treatment for skin cancer.
• Identified two gene variants that double your risk of developing melanoma.
• Conducted the world’s largest and longest running community based skin cancer research project the Nambour Skin Cancer Prevention Trial.
• Demonstrated that obesity and reflux are strong risk factors to developing oesophageal cancers.
• Developed a compound from the rainforest that has shown significant anti-cancer activity in animal cancers.
• First identified the role of the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in the diagnosis of Burkitt’s lymphoma patients in Papua New Guinea. EBV is now known to cause many types of leukaemias and lymphomas.