Alan Stuart CoatesAMFRACP (born 27 June 1943) is an Australian professor of clinical oncology, medical researcher and administrator. He was the inaugural CEO of the Cancer Council Australia (1998–2006),[1] former president of the Clinical Oncological Society of Australia (COSA),[2] and co-chair of the St. Gallen International Breast Cancer Conference.[3] He was also the first non-American to be elected to the board of directors of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.[4]
Professor Coates was until 2015 a co-chair of the biennial St. Gallen Breast Cancer Conference and one of the primary authors of its resulting "consensus paper",[3] a publication that is the "...clinically useful updated breast cancer treatment consensus for the majority of patients treated outside of clinical trials (>90%) in most countries."[11]
2002, appointed Member of the Order of Australia for "service to medicine in the field of oncology, particularly through breast cancer research".[12]
2003, the Medical Oncology Group of Australia Pierre Fabre Cancer Achievement Award lecture.[13]
2006, the American Society for Clinical oncology (ASCO) Distinguished Service Award for Scientific Leadership;[14] the gold medal of the Australian Cancer Society; the Tom Reeve Oration Award of the Clinical Oncological Society of Australia (COSA)[5]
2015, the St.Gallen Breast Cancer Award for his "commitment to international scientific trials and his focus on the quality of life of women afflicted with this cancer".[3][15]
The Australia & New Zealand Breast Cancer Trials Group (ANZBCTG) offers an annual award "The Alan Coates Award for Excellence in Clinical Trials Research".[16]
The "Alan Coates Cancer Centre" in Dubbo, New South Wales, part of the Western Local Health District, has a Chemotherapy Unit that provides outpatient chemotherapy for adult patients[17] and multidisciplinary teams that consider patient management and treatment options.[18]
Bellringing
[edit]Alan (right background, conducting) and Maryon Coates (right foreground) teaching bellringing at St James' Church, Sydney. (2014)
Alan and his twin brother Roger were born on 27 June 1943 at St George's Hospital in Kew, Victoria[21] to parents Thomas and Joan (née Courtney-Pratt) Coates, who had been married the previous year.[22] Younger brother Gordon was born three years later on Boxing Day in the same hospital.[23] On 2 January 1967, Alan married Marylon Slade Bodkin, who was born in Canberra 31 August 1943.[24] They have three children. Also a bellringer and statistician, Marylon Coates is the author of many statistical studies on the incidence and mortality rates from cancer in Australia.[25]
In 2015 Coates survived a serious heart attack while at bellringing practice in St Mary's Cathedral and had to be winched down on a stretcher by abseiling rescuers through a trapdoor in the floor of the tower.[26] It was impossible to take him down via the normal route of 120 steps in a narrow circular stairwell.[27] The persistence and skill of his ringing companions, St Mary's Tower Captain Murray-Luke Peard and bellringer Mark Ferguson, were credited with saving his life by immediately administering cardiopulmonary resuscitation CPR.[28] In recognition of this, ANZAB now provides for first-aid and CPR training for two members in each belltower.[29] Coates had suffered a heart attack 15 years previously, when in full academic dress at Sydney University, preparing to participate in a graduation ceremony for medical students.[15]
^"Travel Grants & Awards". Australia and New Zealand Breast Cancer Trials Group. Archived from the original on 20 August 2016. Retrieved 10 October 2016.
Interview on targeted breast cancer treatment, Milan Breast Cancer Conference (2008)
