Adjunct Professor QUT Peter Malycha

MBBS FRACS FRCS CCPU

Clinical Director

Projects

About me

Peter Malycha’s career has been as a general surgeon with a specialty interest in breast and endocrine surgery. He was employed as a visiting surgeon at Royal Adelaide Hospital and has a clinical academic title with the University of Adelaide.

Professional roles: His activities in the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons include being Councillor, Chairman of the Division of General Surgery, President of General Surgeons Australia, Senior Examiner for FRACS in General Surgery, Chairman of the Section of Breast Surgery, Foundation and Executive member of the Section of Endocrine Surgery and founding Director of the RACS National Breast Cancer Audit now known as BreastSurgANZ Quality Audit.

Research Support: He has been involved in much of the scientific work in magnetic resonance spectroscopy with Professor Mountford, now CEO of the Translational Research Institute. He has worked in this field in his previous roles as Clinical Director of the Institute for Magnetic Resonance Research at University of Sydney, the Centre for MR in Health at the University of Newcastle and now the Translational Research Institute.

Contributions to Surgery: Peter Malycha was the Foundation Director of RACS Breast Audit that has OVER 200,000 patients registered. Many papers have been published by participating surgeons. It will be used when required for the clinico-pathological correlation the current BRCA and High Risk breast cancer study at TRI. He has also been involved in clinical research in endocrine surgery in the development of minimally invasive parathyroid surgery, illness assessment in parathyroid disease and clinician performed ultrasound which helped change clinical practice in Australia

Community Engagement; He has had extensive experience in medical and hospital administration including being Director of Accident and Emergency Services, Royal Adelaide Hospital, AMA Federal and State Councillor, RACS State and Federal Councillor, President of General Surgeons Australia, Chairman of the Division of General Surgery, Senior Examiner in General Surgery, Executive Board Member of St John SA and its ambulance service and Deputy Chairman of St Andrews Hospital. He was an executive member in the Australasian Society for Ultrasound in Medicine (ASUM) for breast and endocrine surgery

Collaborations: Peter Malycha has worked with Professor Mountford for 20 years as clinical director of programs in magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). They, with Professor Ian Smith developed the classifier for breast cancer (SCS) that can determine whether a breast lesion is malignant and if so, the receptor status and the grade of the cancer. More importantly SCS can also determine if the cancer has spread to axillary lymph nodes. This is achieved by taking a spectral (fine needle) sample from the cancer and placing it in a 8.5T vertical bore magnet to obtain the spectrum.  His most recent research into BRCA gene carriers and women at high risk of breast cancer has shown that this diagnostic biochemical deregulation of lipid metabolism can be revealed non invasively by an additional 13 minutes in a Siemens 3T MRI scanner. He is Clinical Director of TRI where his knowledge of the MRS and his role as  surgeon will allow him to interface with the clinicians in Brisbane, Newcastle and Adelaide.  He has a clinical role in Princess Alexandra Hospital.

In his current role he will assist with the translational activity between TRI and PAH, The Mater, UQ and QUT to take MRS technology to an in vivo, noninvasive process on a MRI scanner. The clinical interface will include the development of MRS in other organs, particularly brain and ovary. Its application is neither organ nor disease specific. He will also assist any TRI researcher who has problems accessing clinical support  when trying to take their work to the translational phase. He is a member of the Executive Leadership Team ELT and  the Management Committee of the Clinical Resarch Facility.

 

Research fields

Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy