Official Opening of the 28th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Trans Tasman Radiation Oncology Group

It is my great pleasure to welcome you all to Brisbane for the 28^th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Trans Tasman Radiation Oncology Group.

I extend a particular welcome to the distinguished speakers who have travelled here from interstate and overseas.

As Queensland’s Governor I am naturally pleased to welcome such a prestigious and purposeful event to our State’s capital, but supporting the quest to beat cancer has also been a personal commitment over many years.

I have served as Chairman of the Queensland Cancer Fund, as President of the Australian Cancer Society and as a Trustee of the National Breast Cancer Foundation.

And as Governor, it is my honour to be Patron of the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute and Cancer Council Queensland.

Over the years, I have seen tremendous advances in the use of radiotherapy to successfully treat cancers of the head and neck, breast, bladder, lungs and prostate.

Queensland has become a destination of choice for clinical trials, and within our medical research establishment there is substantial work underway to further exploit the potential of radiation in cancer treatment.

When you chose Brisbane as the venue for this conference, you will have been aware of our reputation for excellence in medical research.

And you will have known about our mild climate and beautiful river.

But you may not have known about the history that makes Brisbane a very appropriate choice of venue.

Just six months after the Würzburg Physical Medical Society published Wilhelm Roentgen’s ground-breaking discovery of x-rays, back in 1896, a Mr JW Sutton held an experimental demonstration of the new technology just a few minutes down the river from here, in Eagle Street.

And of relevance to your theme of “Value for money in oncology research”, almost from that first demonstration 120 years ago, there was a clamour for funds to acquire and update x-ray equipment.

In other words, the embrace of radiation technology and the pressure of limited resources has been a concern for this fast-growing, innovative State for more than a century.

However much we might wish otherwise, funds for research will never be infinite, so I consider your theme to be of great importance, and one I hope will yield important insights.

I am delighted to officially open the 28^th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Trans Tasman Radiation Oncology Group and I wish you all a highly productive three days of discussion and interaction.