Congratulations to Geoffrey Delaney AM

The College congratulates three FRANZCRs whose dedication and achievements in their chosen field of radiation oncology have been recognised in this year’s Australia Day Honours List from the Governor General of the Commonwealth of Australia: Dr Marie Frances Burke OAM, Professor Geoffrey Delaney AM and Associate Professor Graeme Morgan AM.

Inside News spoke to the clinicians recognised this year to hear how they felt on receiving the news.

Their responses highlight their enthusiasm and passion for the specialty and for passing on their knowledge to today’s trainees, they join a number of FRANZCR colleagues honoured for their work by the Governor General on behalf of the Australian state.

Professor Geoffrey Delaney

Professor Delaney is the Director of Cancer Services for the South Western Sydney Local Health District (SWSLHD) and Director of Liverpool Cancer Centre, and conjoint Professor for the University of NSW and University of Western Sydney.

He played a significant role in establishing the Collaboration for Cancer Outcomes Research and Evaluation (CCORE), a centre for oncology health services research situated at Liverpool Hospital. He has developed many other international collaborative links with research groups and played a role in establishing other research collaborations such as the NSW Breast Radiation Oncology Group. He also chairs the NSW Cancer Institute Area Cancer Registry Project Steering Committee.

The research work that he has done with CCORE has included the establishment of a better measure of linear accelerator treatment throughput, the study of patterns of care for lung cancer across NSW, the development of optimal radiation therapy treatment pathways and estimation of the overall proportion of patients that should receive radiation therapy, an optimal chemotherapy utilisation estimate and the study of a new radiation oncology incident reporting tool. All of these studies have had impact on clinical practice.

How did you feel on learning of the honour?

As a proud Australian, I felt incredibly honoured by even being considered worthy by nominees, let alone being awarded such a prestigious honour. Especially when I consider that I have been honoured for doing what I consider my job.

When I look around me, there are so many inspiring people in cancer care and so many deserve to receive an honour. In addition, my patients inspire me, with some of the hardships that we see patients endure, they too would be worthy of such an honour. Many of my patients come from disadvantaged backgrounds and to see how hard they work, even despite a diagnosis of cancer, is truly amazing. I really feel that my accepting the honour is recognition of the team of people who I work with and the work that we have done clearly has had enough impact on some people for them to be motivated to nominate me.

What do you personally see as your greatest contribution to radiation oncology?

I have always tried very hard to be the best that I can in my role by working hard and setting myself high standards. It is a huge privilege, but also a huge responsibility, to be placed into a position where the critical care and survival of a patient falls to me. I am truly blessed that I chose a profession that makes an impact to so many people. I am grateful to be able to contribute my knowledge to mentorship of trainees in cancer care. I love teaching and I hope that my enthusiasm for radiation oncology inspires trainees to embrace radiation oncology like I do.

I am really proud that there are so many ex-trainees out there I have had contact with over the years, many of whom I still have contact with. The other contribution I would suggest is leadership, both in developing a cancer service in south-western Sydney (CCORE) and my involvement in so many research projects that promote high quality radiation therapy.

Can you point to a pivotal moment in your career that represented a breakthrough in cancer care?

There have been many breakthroughs over my time since I commenced radiation therapy training in 1989. Current registrars would not recognise the radiation therapy we delivered back then. One of the major advances of radiation therapy throughout this period has been the role that imaging has played in better targeting of tumours, allowing higher doses and less toxicity to the patient. To think of our reliance on PET, MRI and CT nowadays compared with transcribing tumours from plain X-rays onto manual plans, and performing tasks like urethrograms to define the lower limit of the prostate; radiation therapy has certainly come a long way.

I have been fortunate that in my department in Liverpool we have been at the forefront of imaging advances. We were one of the first departments to have dedicated CT for planning (rather than relying on the radiology department) and then, in later years, a dedicated planning and research MRI. Our nuclear medicine department was one of the first to have access to co-PET, which ultimately evolved into PET, and our department developed the Australian MRI-linac project which has been a very interesting advance in radiation therapy. I have been so lucky that my colleagues and our managers had the foresight to support such technology changes. We wrote an early research paper recommending a "full CT data set" rather than planning on a 3-slice CT which was what was available in most departments who had bought a simulator CT. How obsolete that paper has become!

What advice would you give to the training generation of radiation oncologists?

Enjoy the specialty. A trainee once said to me when they were having trouble with a ‘difficult’ patient, "I am not here to hold the patient's hand through treatment", my reply was that if that is how you truly feel and you are not just having an off day, then maybe consider working in another field. You have to have passion and enjoyment in what you do.

My enjoyment in my career has been the wonderful interactions I have had with my multi-disciplinary colleagues and patients. Cancer care has improved enormously throughout my career and radiation oncology has really changed from often a palliative treatment to a truly curative treatment in so many settings.