Professor Harnett has had a long-standing interest in understanding the mechanism underlying how cancers become resistant to chemotherapy, having studied this for over 20 years in numerous cancers with a special interest in ovarian cancer. His team is studying genes that may be implicated in sensitivity/resistance of ovarian cancer to chemotherapy. Professor Harnett holds a patent in Australia and the USA on therapeutic application of a gene involved in determining sensitivity to chemotherapy in ovarian cancer.
Professor Harnett also conducts clinical research including Phase 1 and 2 clinical trials testing new therapeutic agents or regimens for ovarian cancer (e.g. two international trials of MEK inhibition (MEK162 and pimasertib) in Low Grade Serous Carcinoma). Additionally, with his large and active clinical practice in ovarian cancer, he has assembled a (continually accruing) significant cohort of patients for drug and translational studies, with many having had sequential biopsies at multiple points of disease. As the distinct clinical behaviour and biology of subsets of ovarian cancers becomes more apparent, the clinical observations are being translated into research questions, e.g. is there an underlying genetic basis differentiating the extremes of response to ovarian cancer therapy observed in practice (i.e. extremely good responders vs those refractory to treatment)?