A/Prof Noel Aherne

MB BCh BAO LRCP & SI AFRCSI FRANZCR

Clinical Associate Professor, University of New South Wales

Languages Spoken

English

Special clinical interest

A/Prof Aherne has broad experience in and accepts referrals for all cancer types, and sees patients for prostate, breast, lung and gastrointestinal cancers across all of the Riverina. He introduced stereotactic radiation for eligible patients to the Riverina in 2020, he also introduced rapid access for palliative patients requiring urgent treatment at that time and provides a continuous on call and after hours service to all private and public hospitals across the Murrumbidgee Local Health District.

A/Prof Aherne is an empathetic and skilled oncologist committed to providing comprehensive, expert patient centred cancer care to his patients and their families. He is a highly experienced doctor who has been caring for oncology patients exclusively since 2004 and for patients across the Riverina since 2019. His practice is at the forefront of cutting edge radiation therapy techniques, clinical research and clinical trials. He is passionate about reducing the inequity of access to world class cancer treatment for patients in regional Australia.

Treatments

Dr Aherne specialises in high precision techniques with IMRT / VMAT as standard, use of 4DCT for all patients with thoracic and upper abdominal tumours, DIBH for selected breast cancer patients and stereotactic radiation techniques for patients with primary tumours of the brain, lung, spine and metastatic disease where appropriate. All patients at Cancer Care Griffith and Riverina Cancer Care can access these techniques under his care.

A/Prof Aherne enjoys all aspects of oncology practice but “my greatest passion is to listen to the problems patients are facing and their concerns, then to harness the resources of all my colleagues across our Cancer Care Associates teams and achieve the best, most holistic outcome for them. This is not just limited to their cancer outcome but also follow up care and psychological support ‘.

Research, Awards and Teaching Interests

He is research active with almost 100 national and international presentations and invited lectures, fifty peer reviewed publications and has research and clinical trial  collaborations with researchers at the leading cancer centres in Australia and around the world including the MD Anderson Cancer Centre in Texas, the Cleveland Clinic and the Moffitt Cancer Centre.

He mentors and supervises medical students and doctors in training, so you may be asked to allow these colleagues to help in your care.

A/Prof Aherne is a former Researcher of the Year at the University of New South Wales Clinical School and has a long track record a health outcomes researcher and clinical triallist. His academic interests mainly centre on improving the patient experience, introduction of new technologies and innovations, as well as specific cancer outcomes research.

Publications

Selected publications 

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=aherne+n&sort=date&size=200

Patterns of relapse following hippocampal avoidance prophylactic cranial irradiation for small cell lung carcinoma.

Cook TA, Hoffmann MR, Ross AJ, Turnbull KJ, Westhuyzen J, Aherne NJ. Rep Pract Oncol Radiother. 2021 Dec 30;26(6):968-975. doi: 10.5603/RPOR.a2021.0119. eCollection 2021.

Implementation of the Australian Computer-Assisted Theragnostics (AusCAT) network for radiation oncology data extraction, reporting and distributed learning.

Field M, Vinod S, Aherne N, Carolan M, Dekker A, Delaney G, Greenham S, Hau E, Lehmann J, Ludbrook J, Miller A, Rezo A, Selvaraj J, Sykes J, Holloway L, Thwaites D. J Med Imaging Radiat Oncol. 2021 Aug;65(5):627-636. doi: 10.1111/1754-9485.13287. Epub 2021 Jul 31.

Machine learning applications in radiation oncology.

Field M, Hardcastle N, Jameson M, Aherne N, Holloway L. Phys Imaging Radiat Oncol. 2021 Jun 24;19:13-24. doi: 10.1016/j.phro.2021.05.007. eCollection 2021 Jul. PMID: 34307915

Assessment of genetic referrals and outcomes for women with triple negative breast cancer in regional cancer centres in Australia.

Hallenstein LG, Sorensen C, Hodgson L, Wen S, Westhuyzen J, Hansen C, Last ATJ, Amalaseelan JV, Salindera S, Ross W, Spigelman AD, Shakespeare TP, Aherne NJ. Hered Cancer Clin Pract. 2021 Feb 26;19(1):19. doi: 10.1186/s13053-021-00176-z.

Effect of Clinical and Treatment Factors on Survival Outcomes of Triple Negative Breast Cancer Patients.

Wen S, Manuel L, Doolan M, Westhuyzen J, Shakespeare TP, Aherne NJ. Breast Cancer (Dove Med Press). 2020 Mar 6;12:27-35. doi: 10.2147/BCTT.S236483. eCollection 2020.

Mathematical oncology and it’s application in non melanoma skin cancer – A primer for radiation oncology professionals.

Aherne NJ, Dhawan A, Scott JG, Enderling H. Oral Oncol. 2020 Apr;103:104473. doi: 10.1016/j.oraloncology.2019.104473. Epub 2020 Feb 25.

Radiotherapy for thymic neoplasms.

Fuller CD, Ramahi EH, Aherne N, Eng TY, Thomas CR Jr. J Thorac Oncol. 2010 Oct;5(10 Suppl 4):S327-35. doi: 10.1097/JTO.0b013e3181f20ec4.