BREAKFAST SESSIONS

Breakfast sessions are included in your conference registration. As spaces are limited, please remember to RSVP.

Please click on the plus (+) button next to each breakfast session title for more information.

Australian Cancer Nursing and Navigation Program – Partnering to improve the wellbeing of all individuals impacted by cancer

Wednesday, 12 November 2025
7:00am to 8:15am
Room E3

Sponsored by

Register for this breakfast session

  • This session will provide an overview of the ACNNP support services, including how the Program intends to improve integration of support in a historically fragmented system to benefit consumers and enhance wellbeing.

    The session will focus on the benefits from working as an integrated system and will include perspectives from key service delivery partners including the McGrath Foundation, Cancer Council, Canteen and Rare Cancers Australia including how they are evolving their services to leverage partnerships, including with treating healthcare professionals. to deliver an enhanced service to consumers. A consumer representative will also reflect on how this innovative program approach to care improves the health and wellbeing of consumers.

    The Australian Cancer Nursing and Navigation Program (ACNNP) aims to ensure equitable access to high quality, culturally safe care for anyone impacted by cancer, regardless of where they live or the type of cancer.

    The ACNNP take a person-centred approach to optimise care for consumers, based on their individual need. Support and advice is available for patients, carers, their families and health professionals.

    The presentation will end with an interactive Q+A session with participants.

    Participants will gain an understanding of:

    • the ACNNP

    • how the Program can support healthcare professionals in a resource constrained environment, to improve wellbeing outcomes for their patients

    • how the Program can empower patients and carers to find and access support

    • how a collaborative, integrated approach to cancer care improves outcomes for consumers and supports healthcare professionals in delivering holistic care.

    • Overview of the ACNNP including the cancer care nursing service, navigation service, and specialist support service

    • How the ACNNP is improving integration between program partners and the broader cancer sector and why/how this benefits consumers and healthcare professionals.

    • Showcase of examples of partnership to provide wrap around care for patients, carers and their families

    • A consumer’s perspective on support needs and how the ACNNP (and the principles of integration and collaboration) can support those impacted by cancer

    • Interactive Q+A

    • Georgie Fairhall, Acting Assistant Secretary, Department of Health, Disability and Ageing

    • Georgie Fairhall, Acting Assistant Secretary, Cancer and Palliative Care Branch, Department of Health, Disability and Ageing

    • Dr Susannah Morris, Health Consumer Advocate and Representative, Member of Expert Advisory Group, ACNNP

    • Ryan Barlow, Deputy Chief Executive Officer , McGrath Foundation

    • Danielle Spence, Head of Division, Strategy and Support, Cancer Council Victoria

    • Siona Hardy, CEO, Canteen

    • Christine Cockburn, Chief Executive Officer, Rare Cancers Australia

Equitable cancer outcomes across rural and remote Australia (ECORRA): recent innovations driven by partnerships

Thursday, 13 November 2025
7:30am to 8:45am
Hall A

Sponsored by

Register for this breakfast session

  • This session will bring together representation across the cancer sector in partnership with Deakin University, The Lancet Regional Health – Western Pacific, and academic, health service and policy collaborators to support the delivery of Equitable Cancer Outcomes across Rural and Remote Australia.

    The session brings together researchers, clinicians, policymakers, and consumers to translate research into action for rural communities. Developed through the ECORRA research program at Deakin University's Institute for Health Transformation, the collaboration represents a significant milestone in rural cancer care research and translation.

    This is a collaborative format where the key considerations in rural and remote cancer care will be highlighted.

    This collaborative session aims to maximise the impact of this research connecting key stakeholders, creating direct pathways for implementation, establishing new partnerships, and elevating the national profile of rural cancer care priorities.

    • A call for action to address the challenge of rural and remote cancer inequities (Prof Anna Ugalde)

    • A global synthesis of rural and remote inequities (A/Prof Skye Marshall)

    • The challenge of categorisation: Harmonising rural and remote definitions (Dr Charlene Wright)

    • A historical account of how policy supports inequities (Helena Rodi)

    • How to implement initiatives in rural hospitals (Dr Anna Chapman)

    • Anna Ugalde

    • Helena Rodi, Research Fellow, Institute for Health Transformation, Deakin University

    • Dr Anna Chapman, Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Health Transformation, Deakin University

    • Dr Charlene Wright, Institute for Health Transformation, Deakin University

    • Associate Professor Skye Marshall, Institute for Health Transformation, Deakin University

    • Professor Anna Ugalde, Institute for Health Transformation, Deakin University

What should best-practice, youth-responsive psychosocial care look like? Learnings and next steps from the COSA guidelines for the psychosocial management of adolescents and young adults with cancer

Thursday, 13 November 2025
7:30am to 8:45am
Hall B

Sponsored by

Register for this breakfast session

  • COSA has been at the forefront of recognising the unique needs of adolescents and young adults (AYAs) with cancer since 2012, with the publication of national guidelines for the psychosocial care of AYA with cancer. Since then, significant advances in the field have occurred and the number of publications addressing AYAs’ psychosocial needs has steeply risen. In 2024, our expert working group updated these guidelines with a series of meta-review searches, to enable the updated scientific literature to effectively inform clinical practice. We developed recommendations for practice across nine topics, each vital for improving AYA psychosocial care.

    In this session, we introduce the guideline and explore three of those areas in more depth. Presentation 1 will focus on ‘Life outside cancer’, and the ongoing impacts of cancer during AYA years on cognitive development, educational, vocational and financial outcomes. Presentation 2 on ‘Enhancing wellbeing’, explores data on exercise, creative and integrative therapies. Presentation 3, on ‘Multidisciplinary workforce capacity’, explores what knowledge, skills, and support multidisciplinary health-professionals need to work effectively in this field. Through these presentations, we will explore areas which have seen a significant expansion in literature, and areas urgently needing more research. Finally, our expert panel will discuss strategies to improve AYA psychosocial care across the sector moving forward.

    • Introduction: Overview of the guidelines in the context of the international AYA literature

    • Presentation: Recommendations for supporting AYAs’ life outside cancer

    • Presentation: Enhancing AYAs’ wellbeing – what is known, and not known, about physical activity, creative and integrative therapies

    • Presentation: Improving staff capacity in AYA oncology

    • Expert panel discussion: Scaling up and next steps to improve psychosocial care of AYA with cancer

    • Associate Professor Ursula Sansom-Daly, UNSW Sydney (Director, Behavioural Sciences Unit, and Clinical Psychologist, Sydney Youth Cancer Service)

    • Ursula Sansom-Daly—Director, Behavioural Sciences Unit, and Clinical Psychologist, Sydney Youth Cancer Service, UNSW Sydney

    • Joanna Fardell—Deputy Director, Behavioural Sciences Unit, UNSW Sydney; and Clinical Neuropsychologist, Western Sydney Youth Cancer Service

    • Jessica Elliot—Social Worker, Western Sydney Youth Cancer Service

    • Kate Thompson—Program Director, Victorian Adolescent & Young Adult Cancer Service, Chair of COSA AYA Group

    • Siona Hardy—CEO, Canteen Australia

    • Morgan Atkinson—Clinical Services Manager SA/NT Youth Cancer Service

    • Hayley Griffin—Project Manager, COSA

Keytruda in certain gynaecological cancers: Recurrent ovarian cancer

Thursday, 13 November 2025
7:30am to 8:45am
Room E1

Third-party sponsored session: MSD

Register for this breakfast session

    • KEYNOTE – B96 trial and other treatment / considerations

    • Case presentation – platinum resistant ovarian cancer

  • Lawrence Kasherman

The role of the MDT in supporting beneficial exercise and diet behaviours

Friday, 14 November 2025
7:30am to 8:45am
Room E3

Sponsored by

Register for this breakfast session

  • This session aims to provide the evidence and strategies for use by the MDT to provide exercise and diet support to people after a cancer diagnosis. The session will provide the evidence base (the “why”), an overview of “within-scope” recommendations and advice that MDT members who are not exercise or diet professionals can share (the “what”). The session will include practical tips on how exercise and diet support may be incorporated within a busy clinical role and how to identify the best member of a team to support this (the “how”).

    The session will end with some robust discussions around the capacity people have to engage in these lifestyle discussions and the ever-present barriers (i.e., the opportunity for some audience input).

    • Evidence-based diet and exercise recommendations

    • Providing exercise and diet advice and support: scope of practice for members of the MDT who are not diet or exercise professionals

    • How to incorporate exercise and diet support within the MDT

    • Rosa Spence (Accredited Exercise Physiologist, Cancer Council Queensland): Brief summary of the evidence and recommendations of exercise for cancer survivors

    • Dietitian (TBC): Brief summary of the evidence and recommendations of diet for cancer survivors

    • Kathryn Middleton (Oncologist, Mater Hospital): Medical Oncologist’s experiences of supporting diet and exercise behaviours – challenges and tips 

    • Bronwyn Jennings (Gynaecology Oncology Clinical Nurse Consultant, Mater Health): Oncology nurse’s experiences of supporting diet and exercise behaviours – challenges and tips 

    • Elizabeth Johnston (Senior Research Fellow (Survivorship), Cancer Council Queensland): Tools and strategies for discussing and supporting diet and exercise behaviours

    • Discussion: Audience experiences and suggestions + Q&A