Medical Oncology Group of Australia (MOGA)

MOGA is the national professional organisation for Australian medical oncology and profession, and a Special Society of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP). This report outlines highlights of our activities over the first half of 2025.

Workforce, Workload and Wellbeing

MOGA members manage the national medical oncology workforce, workload, and daily wellbeing. On a practical level this entails establishing national and local initiatives to support wellbeing and safe, productive cultures within Australian workplaces. The MOGA-led National Oncology Mentorship Program (NOMP) guided by Drs Jenny Liu and Udit Nindra has entered its third successful year and is proactively providing workplace training and support to our members.

MOGA is responsible for monitoring and planning the workload, wellbeing and workforce needs of the Australian profession to ensure the membership can sustainably deliver clinical best practice given the ever-increasing complexity and burden of cancer care. Since the start of the year our Workforce Committee has been expanding its representation and work to include all practice settings (metropolitan/regional/ remote/international) and private, industry, public and academic sectors. The Committee is also aiming to develop national benchmarks of Medical Oncologist workload as it pertains to the increasing complexity in cancer care, identifying workforce gaps and future challenges.

Advocacy 

In the first half of 2025, MOGA has been monitoring and proactively responding to the negotiations taking place in NSW regarding a new industrial award for medical staff and will continue to be supporting our members as well as responding to the State Health Minister.

Our Oncology Drugs Working Group continues to provide regular feedback to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) about proposed new listings and has met several times this year with the new chair Professor Robyn Ward. Drs Anupriya Agarwal and Lucy Corke currently lead the development of submissions provided to the PBAC, highlighting medicines that are of high priority nationally for Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) listing. The group has also been actively collaborating with the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) Shortages Section to develop better policy regarding national drug shortages to ensure patients can access key cancer medicines when needed. Dr Jennifer Soon contributed to the recent review of minimum stockholding requirements in Australia with the aim of avoiding shortages of important drugs, like the recent problems with carboplatin and capecitabine. The group has also commenced work with the TGA to develop an essential oncology drugs list for the TGA.

Educational Initiatives 

In March the MOGA Medical Ethics Group, led by Dr Tam Bui, convened the first session in our Medical Ethics webinar series on the topic of “Conflicts of Interest in Medical Oncology”; Prof Michael Millward, chaired the session and Prof Wendy Lipworth and Dr Lisa Parker shared insights on the definition and clinical implications of COIs, and how medical oncologists can identify and manage them. Our panel, which also included Prof John Zalcberg AO and Cancer Voices consumer representative, Ms Karen van Gorp, concluded with a very lively and spirited interactive session with the large audience.

In late May, 30 young medical oncologists and trainees participated in the 2025 Sciences of Oncology Workshop, convened by A/Prof Connie Diakos, MOGA’s Education Lead. This one-day program offered practical, real-time education focused on emerging developments in the sciences that underpin oncology and how they are transforming clinical practice. The educational sessions were presented by leading Australian oncology experts. Travel support was provided to interstate participants, including a large group from Western Australia.

Educational Initiatives continued

From 12-14 August, Drs Miles Andrews and Lavinia Spain will convene the 2025 Annual Scientific Meeting themed “Beyond the Checkpoints – Navigating the Immunotherapy Revolution”. The meeting will explore how immunotherapy has not replaced but enriched cancer care alongside more established treatment approaches, and will cover the dual challenges of immunotherapy failure and immune-related adverse events, insights to stay ahead of the next wave of immunotherapeutics, and how to navigate ever-changing treatment options, moving goalposts of survival, and access to evolving standards of care. The meeting will draw national and international experts including confirmed international speakers Dr Ecaterina Dumbrava, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Dr Andrew Furness, The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, Dr Fay Hlubocky, University of Chicago Medicine and Dr Ishwaria Subbiah, The US Oncology Network, Sarah Cannon Research Institute.

Pictured: 2025 MOGA ASM Co-convenors, Dr Miles Andrews and Dr Lavinia Spain

Planning has been finalised for the next MOGA Breast Cancer Preceptorship (Convenors A/Prof Connie Diakos and Dr Lina Pugliano) scheduled for 31 October-1 November. Up to 35 young medical oncologists can register as preceptees for the program and, up to 12 early- to mid-career medical oncologists with breast experience will participate as preceptors. Registration is open and travel support is available for interstate and regional participants.

Representing the Profession

In the first half of 2025 the MOGA leadership represented the Australian medical oncology profession at major international and national initiatives.

From 6-8 March, MOGA Chair, A/Prof Melissa Eastgate attended the Japanese Society of Medical Oncology Annual Meeting in Kobe, and had discussions with colleagues in Japan, Singapore, Taiwan and Korea about the workforce issues that are impacting medical oncologists in our region and globally.

Later in March, Prof Phil Parente participated in the Council of Presidents of the Medical Colleges and Special Societies meeting on the critical issue of the supply of specialists in Australia and potential solutions. A/Prof James Lynam attended the RACP and Societies Presidents' Forum where current education, training, leadership and development collaborations for trainees and Fellows were reviewed including the Advanced Training Committees, Curriculum Review process, and CPD Program. The forum included a Workforce breakout session which identified priorities across sub-specialties encompassing national clinical needs, international benchmarking, mapping, and measuring demand.

In early May, the MOGA leadership joined the Federal Health Department to review Medicare compliance in the Medical Oncology sector and to plan for future collaboration. On 20 May A/Prof Tim Clay attended Medicines Australia’s Oncology Industry Taskforce meeting which considered the challenges of the national regulatory system and applications for combination therapies where there is more than one sponsor, and cross industry support for liquid biopsy for lung cancer patients.

A/Prof Melissa Eastgate, MOGA Chair

Ms Flavia Portela, MOGA General Manager