Liverpool Catholic Club has been a strong supporter of Arrow for many years now, donating over $500,000 to support medical research and also our patient support program.

And now, the club has decided to extend that support to create the Liverpool Catholic Club Arrow PhD Scholarship, providing a $50,000 contribution to our PhD Scholarship program. This money will support our latest PhD Scholar, Cathy Pendergrast, as she commences her GvHD research through the Child Health Research Centre at the University of Queensland.

Read on to learn more about Cathy’s research:

From Sports Science to GvHD research – meet our newest PhD Scholarship Recipient Cathy Pendergrast

Cathy Pendergrast’s career began with a Sports Science degree in 1991. At the time, Sports Science was a relatively new discipline, and no one really knew what to do with a sports scientist, so jobs in this field were scarce.

Cathy began working in a junior role in a private respiratory lab, added a Graduate Certificate in Respiratory Science to her qualifications, and eventually moved to a role with the Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Adelaide.

“It’s such a fulfilling career,” she said. “There are so many different patient groups to work with, and it’s always good to know that you’re making a difference in their lives.”

One of the groups respiratory scientists are beginning to see more frequently is bone marrow and stem cell transplant patients. More and more, transplant teams are sending patients for lung function tests prior to transplant to give them a ‘normal’ pre-transplant understanding of lung function so that they have some data for comparison post-transplant.

“There are a couple of problems with the current testing,” Cathy said. “Lung graft v. host disease begins in the smaller airways of the lungs, towards the alveoli, which is where oxygen and carbon dioxide are exchanged between the bloodstream and the air we breathe in. But the most common test used in respiratory labs at the moment – spirometry – measures how much air you can breathe in and out as well as how fast you can breathe it out. It’s an effective measure for the larger more central airways, but not sensitive enough to detect changes deep in the lungs.”

It’s also a test that requires a co-ordinated breathing movement that many young children find difficult to perform, especially if they are already weak from treatment.

Looking at other possible tests

Cathy’s PhD research will focus on the possibility of using two other tests, which have been used successfully in other clinical areas, but not so much yet in lung graft v. host disease.

The first of these is Multiple Breath Washout, which is much more sensitive, and able to detect early lung function impairment. It is particularly useful in testing young children because it is performed with normal, relaxed breathing. It still requires a clinical setting, however.

The second test included in Cathy’s research is called Respiratory Oscillometry, which again is suitable for use with young patients because it too only requires normal relaxed breathing to perform. It is a sensitive test and particularly useful for picking up early changes in lung function and it is portable, meaning that it may be able to be performed in the patient’s home.

“About 5 – 10% of patients who have had an allogeneic bone marrow transplant go on to develop lung graft v. host disease, and we think this is possibly an underestimation of the true numbers. If this disease is not found until late in its progress, kids may become oxygen dependent and struggle with daily activities. It’s devastating for everyone involved when that happens,” Cathy said. “If we can pick it up early, we have a chance of treating the disease and making a difference to the outcomes for these kids.”

Everyone benefits if the testing becomes easier and more sensitive. “Just going into a clinical environment can be intimidating for kids, especially those who have had a lot of other hospital procedures. Being able to make this one test easier and more effective is a big step towards reducing the impact of lung graft v. host disease in this cohort of patients,” Cathy said.

Satisfaction in helping the youngest of patients

“One of the most satisfying parts of my role as a respiratory scientist is just being able to give kids back some control and get them involved in what’s happening. They lose a lot of that control when they’re going through treatment. I like to be able to say things like, ‘I’m just getting things ready for today. Can you hold this for me?’ and I’ll give them a mask to hold while I get other things ready. We make up funny names for the different parts of the equipment when we are describing the test. These are often very young children, and even though we make the lab as friendly and welcoming as possible, it is still a clinical setting, so not rushing, giving them time to feel comfortable and understand what we’re asking them to do really helps. We try to make their experience with us a positive one,” Cathy said.

“You can’t change your lung function through sheer effort. It is what it is,” she continued. “They’ve not done anything wrong, and they haven’t caused the change in their lungs. It’s just happened to them. I hope the research we are doing here at the Child Health Research Centre will make a difference to how well and how early we can detect lung graft v. host disease.”

Professor Paul Robinson, Cathy’s supervisor for her PhD, added “We face the challenge that by the time the current tests make us aware of what is happening with the child, the damage is already done, so it’s too difficult to reverse. The key is early detection. When you find the changes early you’ve got a real chance to turn it around and achieve a much better outcome, so I’m really excited about what this work can achieve.”

Professor Robinson continued, “I’d like to thank Arrow for all of your efforts to bring that funding together and for creating that opportunity, because it makes a real difference.”

When she’s not in the lab

And when she’s not conducting research? Where is Cathy then?

“I love getting out into nature, and when we moved from Adelaide to Brisbane for my research, we took the opportunity to rent a home near the coast, so when I can get away from my desk, I love to take our two labradoodles Emmy & Amber for a walk along the beach.”