A/Prof Andrew Barbour

Professor Andrew Barbour is a Surgical Oncologist at the University of Queensland, specialising in the treatment of oesophageal, gastric, and pancreatic diseases, melanoma, and soft tissue tumors. He received training at Bristol Royal Infirmary as an Upper Gastrointestinal and Hepatobiliary Surgery Fellow and at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre in New York as a Surgical Oncology Fellow. He is skilled in minimally invasive treatments for these conditions, including laparoscopic oesophagectomy, laparoscopic gastrectomy, and laparoscopic pancreatectomy, amongst others.

Prof Barbour has also been actively involved in conducting clinical trials at various levels, including Phase I, II, and III. As the Principal Investigator for two multicentre phase II trials, DOCTOR and GAP, funded by the NHMRC, he has been able to use molecular analyses, including blood and tumour tissue banking, to develop personalised precision therapy to improve outcomes for cancer patients. The DOCTOR trial was the first trial to use PET scans to tailor therapy for patients with oesophageal cancer, and the GAP trial established the safety of pre-operative chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer patients.

Moreover, Prof Barbour is the head of Surgical Oncology Lab at the University of Queensland School of Medicine. His laboratory research is focused on using genomic, epigenomic, mRNA expression, and next-generation sequencing data to classify oesophageal adenocarcinoma, pancreatic cancer, and melanoma while identifying biomarkers of outcome. The studies conducted by his research team have drastically improved our understanding of pancreatic cancer, with significant contribution from his membership to the Australian Pancreatic Cancer Genome Initiative.

In summary, Prof Barbour's extensive experience in clinical trials and laboratory-based research, especially in areas such as pancreatic cancer, oesophageal adenocarcinoma, and melanoma, has been aimed at developing precision therapy that is tailored to individual cancer patients. He has been a key leader in the field, facilitating the improvement of cancer treatment strategies for better patient outcomes.