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Launching the Foundation’s new strategy!

10 February 2026

The Peter Mac Foundation is delighted to launch its new strategy for 2026 onwards!

Foundation Strategy 1PIctured: Bruce Akhurst, Foundation Chair, Jason Payne, CEO of Peter Mac, Craig Connelly, Foundation CEO, Professor Rosemary McKenzie, Peter Mac Chair, Professor Shahneen Sandhu

The new strategy provides clear direction for how the Foundation will grow our impact in an increasingly complex and changing environment. As our ambition and scope expands, this strategy helps ensure we are focused, aligned and confident in the decisions we make. Rather than having a fixed end date, it provides long-term direction while allowing flexibility as our environment changes.

It sets a clear purpose for the Foundation: to activate and empower a community of supporters to help transform outcomes for people affected by cancer, and to enable Peter Mac to be global leaders in research-led cancer care. By understanding and responding to supporter needs and motivations, we can build connections and increase support for Peter Mac’s lifechanging research. 

Read our Foundation Strategy (PDF)

 Foundation Strategy 2

Importantly, the Foundation’s new strategy aligns with Peter Mac’s Innovating for Impact strategy. This alignment strengthens our partnership with Peter Mac, helping to accelerate our world-leading research and clinical innovation and deliver meaningful outcomes for people affected by cancer.

The strategy was launched at Peter Mac on Tuesday 10 February. Foundation CEO Craig Connelly, Foundation Chair Bruce Akhurst, Peter MAC CEO Professor Jason Payne, Peter Mac Board Chair Professor Rosemary McKenzie and researcher Professor Shahneen Sandhu all spoke to the importance of our new strategy.

Craig Connelly, Foundation CEO, said:

“For the Foundation team, it is our North Star. It helps everyone see how our role as your Foundation contributes to the bigger picture.”

Read our Foundation Strategy (PDF)

Foundation Strategy 3Professor Rosemary McKenzie

 

 Foundation Strategy 4Staff pictured at the strategy launch

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We are delighted to share with you the new Peter Mac Foundation’s strategy!  Every day, people affected by cancer face some of the toughest moments of their lives. Support from our incredible community helps make world-leading research, innovative treatments and compassionate care possible.  Our new strategy sets forward how your generosity will continue to make a real difference for patients and families, today and into the future. By working closely with Peter Mac, we’re ensuring your support drives the breakthroughs that matter most.  Together, we’re helping shape the future of cancer care and research – and creating hope where it’s needed most. Thank you for being part of this journey.  To read our new strategy, head to the link in bio.
This World Cancer Day 2026, we are United by Unique. We often hear from our incredible community of Peter Mac supporters about their personal journeys with cancer. And every story we hear reminds us that no two cancer journeys are the same. These stories show us why research into personalised cancer care is so vital. Cancer doesn’t affect people in one way, and the best treatment recognises and responds to each person’s uniqueness. That’s why Peter Mac’s researchers are developing therapies shaped by each person’s needs, keeping people at the heart of all we do. Today, we recognise all Peter Mac supporters and the many different experiences and motivations that unite them. Thank you for helping advance cancer treatment and care shaped around each individual.
What if we could see exactly how cancer behaves once it reaches the bone? New research can help us map what happens next and develop better treatments for advanced cancer. When cancer spreads to the bone, it can cause serious complications and become incurable. This is particularly common in hormone-driven cancers like breast and prostate cancer. Interestingly, although many cancer cells can enter the bone, only a small number will aggressively spread. This process, often taking months or years, suggests the bone marrow environment plays a key role in keeping cancer cells dormant or triggering ‘bone metastases’. But bone tissue is extremely difficult to study, making it hard for researchers to understand how this spread occurs. Because of this, there are currently no effective treatments for bone metastases. Dr Joan So was recently awarded a Peter Mac Foundation grant to help overcome this challenge. With grant funding, Dr So will use samples from breast cancer patients who have suffered bone metastases to study how cancer cells interact with the surrounding cell types in the bone marrow. Using cutting edge technology to see which genes are active in individual cells and how these cells behave in bone tissue, Dr So will generate a detailed “Google Map” of breast cancer that’s moved to the bone. This will help to identify which cells and molecular pathways influence the switch between dormant and growing cancer. The potential insights from Dr So’s work may open a new world of research opportunities and reveal new approaches for treating cancer that has spread to the bone. Thank you for supporting work that provides hope to people facing advanced cancer.
As another year draws to a close, the Peter MacCallum Cancer Foundation thanks our amazing supporters for your outstanding generosity this year. In 2025, your support has allowed lifesaving cancer research at Peter Mac to grow and thrive. Whether it was donating, leaving a gift in will, volunteering, running a marathon, rallying the community or sharing your story – you have all played a vital role in shaping a brighter for people affected by cancer. On behalf of Peter Mac researchers, clinicians and all people affected by cancer: thank you sincerely for your amazing support in 2025. Wishing you all a happy and healthy 2026.
“Big thanks to everyone who’s donated to Peter Mac research this Christmas. Your support means we can make greater discoveries to help cancer patients all over the world.” – A message from Associate Professor Ben Tran, Medical Oncologist at Peter Mac. Read more about Ben's work here: foundation.petermac.org/ben_christmas
Finding a ‘peek behind the curtain’ for CAR T-cell therapies may be the answer to new ways of treating solid cancer tumours. CAR T-cell therapy has been a game-changer in treating blood cancers. Patient immune cells are modified to recognise cancer cells and attack them. Unfortunately, it has not been as successful in treating solid tumours. One potential reason is that not enough of the immune cells travel to the tumour to be effective. There is currently no method for locating and tracking these cells in real-time, making it hard to understand why CAR T-cell therapy is largely ineffective at treating solid tumours. With the support of a Peter Mac Foundation Grant, Dr Rebecca Abbott is exploring if a molecule called a ‘tracer’ can be used to watch CAR T-cell therapy in action. This could potentially be a powerful tool in providing insights on why CAR T-cell therapy often doesn’t work in solid tumours, and how we can design CAR T-cells which are more effective. Dr Abbott’s research can help to change the course for CAR T-cell therapy and expand treatment options across more cancer types. Thank you for supporting groundbreaking research that helps people with all cancers.
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