WA Cancer Care Reaches a New Milestone at Royal Perth Hospital
Image L-R: Clare Grieveson (EMHS Board Member), A/Professor Zlatibor Velickovic (Facility Director of CTTWA), The Hon Stephen Dawson MLC (Minister for Medical Research), Mr Joel Gurr (Chief Executive of East Metropolitan Health Service)
A major milestone for cancer treatment and medical research has been achieved at Royal Perth Hospital (RPH). RPH is now licensed to manufacture both Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T-cell and Tumour-Infiltrating Lymphocyte (TIL) therapies.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) licence makes RPH the first hospital in Australia authorised to manufacture TIL therapies for clinical studies, strengthening Western Australia’s capability to develop and deliver advanced cell therapies closer to the patients who need them.
The Hon Stephen Dawson MLC, Minister for Medical Research, recently visited Royal Perth Hospital to commemorate the milestone alongside Associate Professor Zlatibor Velickovic, Facility Director of Cell and Tissue Therapies WA (CTTWA), Mr Joel Gurr, Chief Executive of East Metropolitan Health Service, and Clare Grieveson, Board Member of East Metropolitan Health Service.
During the visit, we also heard from two patients who shared their experiences receiving advanced cell therapies and the profound impact treatment has had on their lives.
CAR T-cell and TIL therapies are highly personalised treatments that harness the power of a patient’s own immune system to fight cancer.
CAR T-cell therapy involves collecting a patient’s immune cells and genetically modifying them so they can better recognise and attack cancer cells. The approach has transformed treatment for some people with blood cancers.
TIL therapy takes immune cells that are already present within a patient’s tumour, activates them, expands their numbers in a laboratory and returns them to the patient to help their immune system attack the cancer. The therapy is showing promise in treating melanoma and other solid tumours.
Being able to manufacture these therapies locally creates new opportunities for clinical research in WA and will ultimately enable more patients to access advanced treatments without having to travel interstate or overseas.
For RPH Research Foundation, this achievement represents an important step in an area of research and healthcare innovation we have supported over the years.
The Foundation has provided direct funding to A/Prof Velickovic to help build RPH’s advanced therapy manufacturing capability. Thanks to a Gift in Will made in memory of Felix Viktor and Verena Vonesch, the Foundation was able to support a laboratory space and specialised automated cell-processing equipment for the development of advanced therapy medicinal products at RPH.
A/Prof Velickovic has also been involved in several projects supported through the Foundation’s competitive research funding programs.
Among these is a $1.2 million Research Innovation and Impact Grant project led by Associate Professor Agnes Yong, which is investigating place-of-care manufactured CAR T-cells for patients with relapsed myeloma. The research aims to demonstrate whether personalised CAR T-cells can be safely and effectively manufactured at RPH, potentially reducing treatment costs and waiting times while improving access for Australian patients.
More recently, A/Prof Velickovic has also received funding for a Telethon-supported project administered through RPH Research Foundation to advance CAR T-cell therapy for children with high-risk neuroblastoma.
Together, these projects form part of a growing ecosystem of advanced cell therapy research and manufacturing capability at Royal Perth Hospital.
The new manufacturing licence provides an important pathway for research developed here in Western Australia to progress into clinical trials and, ultimately, new treatment options for patients.
The first clinical trials and patient treatments involving locally manufactured CAR T-cell and TIL therapies at RPH are expected to begin before the end of 2026.
For patients and their families, developing this capability locally also means the possibility of receiving highly specialised treatment closer to home, while remaining connected to their families, communities and support networks.
RPH Research Foundation is proud to support researchers including A/Prof Velickovic and the teams working to advance cell and gene therapies in Western Australia.
This milestone demonstrates what can be achieved when research, clinical expertise, infrastructure and investment come together with a shared goal of translating innovation into better care for patients.
