The Australasian Lung Cancer Trials Group (ALTG) president and entire Management Advisory Committee have quit and started their own breakaway trials group in a dramatic split from the Lung Foundation Australia (LFA), which described it as “not in the best interests of lung cancer research”.
The LFA has moved to allay concerns about the funding of ongoing trials, as it announced on 10 July that it had “reluctantly” accepted the resignations of the President, Associate Professor Nick Pavlakis, and the management committee of the ALTG.
The ALTG was established as part of the LFA’s Lung Cancer National Program in 2004, and a breakaway group have now formed a new lung and other thoracic cancer trials group – Thoracic Oncology Group Australasia (TOGA).
Associate Professor Pavlakis, a Sydney-based medical oncologist who undertakes extensive research in thoracic and GI cancers, told the limbic it was too early to make public comment about the breakaway group.
But Lung Foundation CEO Mr Mark Brooke said the split came after long-running discussions about the committee’s desire for more autonomy.
“It is not a parting on negative terms,” he said. “We have been trying to resolve this matter for the last 12 months and it has been conducted with great respect and dignity on both our parts. “
Mr Brooke said the Lung Foundation had a broad remit across all lung disorders, including cancers, and he understood the breakaway group was seeking a targeted approach on lung and thoracic cancers.
“It was not able to be accommodated within the current governance structures. We have a board, an elected board … ALTG wanted to secure more autonomy. But you can’t have a board within a board.”
While Mr Brooke described the separation as “amicable”, he criticised the committee members’ decision to breakaway in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The Board and I believe right now is not the right time to establish another lung cancer group, as we are dealing with difficult times with the pandemic.”