Dr Mariana Sousa from the Faculty of Health IMPACCT Research Centre received the prestigious 2022 UTS Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research Fellowship to further develop her research building multidisciplinary capacity to deliver quality cancer cachexia care.
Dr Mariana de Sousa
Recipients of the scheme have a four-year appointment, project funding of $50,000 and a range of other benefits.
Cachexia, a “wasting” disorder, affects around 80% of patients with advanced cancer, and accounts for up to 30% of cancer deaths.
Although extremely prevalent, cachexia is often not diagnosed and managed, so many people with cancer are dying because of this condition.
The optimal management of cachexia requires a well-coordinated multidisciplinary approach. However, there is currently no comprehensive training in cachexia for healthcare professionals in Australia.
Mariana’s project will deliver a competency-based education and training framework to support health care professionals to make timely diagnosis and provide best-practice cancer cachexia care in Australia.
It’s about improving equity in accessing cancer cachexia care and training clinicians to provide culturally sensitive care, because we can intervene to alleviate the symptoms of cachexia, and the earlier we do that the better
Dr Mariana de Sousa
“If you know anyone going through cancer and have watched them waste away, you will know how severe and debilitating cachexia is,” says Dr Sousa.
“The less weight they have the less tolerant patients will be to chemotherapy or radiotherapy, thus impacting on the effectiveness of their cancer treatment, as well as on the ability of the person to be physically active and independent,” Mariana said.
Dr Sousa comes from a medical family and had ambitions to be a doctor from as early as she can remember.
She graduated in medicine in Brazil with intensive training in breast surgery and gynae-oncology and worked in the industry providing care for women with cancer until 2012 when she moved to Australia.
Since then, she has shifted the focus of her work to translational cancer research with clinical and research interests in cancer-associated symptoms, including treatment-related harms and the impact of health on quality of life.
Her current projects focus on cultivating university-industry collaboration and building commitment to knowledge sharing to help improve outcomes for patients with cancer cachexia and their families.
Find out more
For more information about our research impact in the Faculty of Health or for collaboration opportunities, contact:
Professor Angela Dawson
Associate Dean of Research, Faculty of Health
E: Angela.Dawson@uts.edu.au
T: +61 (02) 9514 4892
PO Box 123 Broadway NSW 2007 Australia