Haematology

Monash Haematology is a dynamic academic research organisation that integrates the best evidence-base into routine patient care.

We provide haematology care to a population of approximately 1.3 million, making it one of the largest services in Australia.

Our mission is to improve the health and well-being of patients with blood disease by providing the best care to every patient through integrated clinical practice, education, and research.

Key leadership areas in clinical care and research include:

  • Lymphoma and Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia
  • Acute Leukaemia and Myelodysplastic Syndromes
  • Venous thromboembolic disease
  • Haemoglobinopathy
  • Obstetric Haematology
  • Transfusion medicine

The unit is actively involved in exploring new models of healthcare delivery, the development of personalised diagnostics, and developing the next generation of cellular therapies for malignant blood disease.

We are responsible for training our future workforce through the integration of our clinical services with teaching and academia.

The unit has an international reputation for clinical research and has a large trial portfolio including several first-in-human, investigator-initiated and cooperative trial group studies. Monash Haematology researchers are key players in several national and international clinical registries and are actively involved in service optimisation through clinical audit.

We are active collaborators with several research organisations including School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health (Monash University), the Australasian Leukaemia and Lymphoma Group, and the Children’s Oncology Group.

Through our partnership with Monash University, we have an emerging basic science and translational research programme embedded within the state-of-the-art Monash Health Translational facility.

Cellular Therapies

Blood cancer treatment is poised to enter a new and exciting era, heralded by the advent of potent and precise immune therapies. Cellular Therapy is a term used to describe human cells based treatment to replace or repair damaged tissue and/or cells.

In 2022, Monash Haematology is excited to be able to offer some of these cellular therapies as a part of our service.

Autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplantation

This is one of the most established forms of cellular therapies and is used to treat a variety of haematological conditions. In autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT), the patient’s own bone marrow stem cells are collected and reinfused after killing tumour cells with high dose chemotherapy. ASCT is offered to potentially cure several lymphoma in relapsed setting and as a front line therapy in multiple myeloma and mantle cell lymphoma.

CAR-T therapy (chimeric antigen receptor T cells)

CAR-T cell therapy is the latest form of cellular therapies. This involves genetic modification of immune cells (specifically T lymphocytes) to recognise and kill resistant cancer cells.

Autologous (patient’s own) CAR-T cell therapy is now approved to treat adult aggressive B cell lymphoma and B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in children and young adults. CAR-T cell therapy in other blood cancers including multiple myeloma as well as allogeneic (donor-driven) CAR-T cell therapy is also available in clinical trials.

Currently, Monash Haematology is working towards offering clinical trial CAR-T cell therapies. In the near future, we anticipate these therapies will become available as standard of care at Monash Health.