Paul Harnett

Biography

Professor Paul Harnett is a medical oncologist who specialises in the management of breast cancer and gynaecological cancers, particularly ovarian cancer. He is a senior clinician-scientist with over 25 years experience in observing, studying, and treating ovarian cancers. His research interests include understanding the causes of and treatment options for ovarian cancer. He has a national and international reputation in the field and has co-authored NHMRC guidelines for ovarian cancer. Professor Harnett is Director of The Crown Princess Mary Cancer Centre Westmead, a comprehensive cancer care centre with an international reputation in clinical cancer care, teaching and cancer research. Additionally, as Director of Sydney West Cancer Network he oversees a collaborative network of clinical cancer services across Sydney’s west including the development of localised subspecialty cancer services which ensures each patient has access to tertiary level cancer wherever he/she lives in Sydney’s west. Professor Harnett also is a key facilitator of translational research as head of the Sydney West Translational Cancer Research Centre, a consortium linking the multi-disciplinary groups involved in cancer care and (clinical and basic) cancer research in western Sydney. Professor Harnett notes, “I am interested firstly in turning clinical observations into research questions that help explain the observations and facilitate improved clinical care. My second interest is bringing people together to help establish multidisciplinary tumour programs from a systems perspective. The aim is to create programs specific for each type of cancer, which would methodically encapsulate the patient’s experience, from screening and diagnosis through to multidisciplinary treatment, psychosocial care and palliative care. The idea is to develop better systems that improve patient outcomes”.

Research Interest

Professor Harnett has had a long-standing interest in understanding the mechanism underlying how cancers become resistant to chemotherapy, having studied this for over 20 years in numerous cancers with a special interest in ovarian cancer. His team is studying genes that may be implicated in sensitivity/resistance of ovarian cancer to chemotherapy. Professor Harnett holds a patent in Australia and the USA on therapeutic application of a gene involved in determining sensitivity to chemotherapy in ovarian cancer. Professor Harnett also conducts clinical research including Phase 1 and 2 clinical trials testing new therapeutic agents or regimens for ovarian cancer (e.g. two international trials of MEK inhibition (MEK162 and pimasertib) in Low Grade Serous Carcinoma). Additionally, with his large and active clinical practice in ovarian cancer, he has assembled a (continually accruing) significant cohort of patients for drug and translational studies, with many having had sequential biopsies at multiple points of disease. As the distinct clinical behaviour and biology of subsets of ovarian cancers becomes more apparent, the clinical observations are being translated into research questions, e.g. is there an underlying genetic basis differentiating the extremes of response to ovarian cancer therapy observed in practice (i.e. extremely good responders vs those refractory to treatment)