Indunil Weerasena has won a cancer research grant
Camera IconIndunil Weerasena has won a cancer research grant Credit: Supplied/Supplied

Perth doctor wins grant to research highly aggressive cancer

Laura PondStirling Times

A YOKINE doctor has won a grant to research a highly aggressive and hard to detect form of breast cancer.

Indunil Weerasena, an oncologist at Fiona Stanley Hospital, is one of seven researchers recently awarded a WA Cancer and Palliative Care Network research fellowship.

Dr Weerasena will share in $1.2 million for his research into a ‘rogue’ integrated cluster two breast cancer, which he has dubbed the wolf in sheep’s clothing because there is no way of distinguishing it from others in its group of oestrogen receptor (ER) positive cancers.

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He will investigate whether the cancer is a subtype known as IC2, which contains a protein called AAMDC.

Research previously found that AAMDC was resistant to hormone and chemotherapies and Dr Weerasena’s findings could allow for earlier identification and more effective treatments of this type of cancer.