2025 AOMA Virtual Summit
Australia's biggest ocular melanoma virtual meeting
Each year, Melanoma and Skin Cancer Trials along with its special interest group, the Australasian Ocular Melanoma Alliance (AOMA), hold a Virtual Summit. This full-day, online meeting brings together healthcare professionals, researchers, and consumers in ocular melanoma to share the latest research and facilitate national and international collaborations for this rare, aggressive, and often devastating cancer.
This free online event features international and Australian ocular melanoma experts, along with consumers who talk about their experiences with ocular melanoma. The summit covers the latest in clinical trials, ocular melanoma therapies, advances in ophthalmology, new Australian and international research, radiation oncology, and more. Attendees can watch from anywhere in the world as well as access the session videos online.
CPD from Optometry Australia
Optometry Australia has provided CPD accreditation to the 2025 AOMA Summit and Optometry Australia members could gain CPD hours for attending the live 2025 AOMA Virtual Summit on 8 November 2025.
CPD from Optometrists and Dispensing Opticians Board of New Zealand
For the first time, NZ practitioners can now claim up to 4.25 CPD credits via the Optometrists and Dispensing Opticians Board for attending the Summit. Please register for the event via the link above and email your ODOB registration number to hello@masc.org.au prior to the event.
Article in Optometry Connection
Read Dr Tim Isaac’s article on uveal melanoma in the May 2024 edition of Optometry Connection.
International speakers
Dr David Ancona Lezama is a Mexican ophthalmologist trained in Retina Surgery at Asociacion Para Evitar la Ceguera (Mexico City, Mexico) and in Ocular Oncology at Wills Eye Hospital (Philadelphia, USA) under the mentorship of Dr Carol Shields and Dr Jerry Shields. He is currently Professor of Ophthalmology at Tecnologico de Monterrey, one of Mexico’s top 2 Universities.
Talk: Update on Prompt Diagnosis of Choroidal Melanoma
Georgia Hall was diagnosed and treated for choroidal melanoma in 2021 at Sydney Eye Hospital when she was 31 years old. She received eye sparing plaque radiation therapy and receives routine surveillance. Georgia is passionate about sharing her experiences to help raise awareness around eye cancers. In 2022 she became the Australasian Ambassador to the Victoria Cohen Eye Cancer Charitable Trust. The charity awards scholarships to aspiring ocular oncologists to support their training and educational needs for their fellowship. Georgia works as a sustainability research analyst for an investment firm and relocated from Sydney to London in 2023.
Talk: Now what? Life after eye cancer
Jill Hopkins, M.D., is Chief Medical Officer and President of Research and Development at Aura Biosciences, leading the development of viral drug conjugates in ocular and urologic oncology. Jill has over 30 years of cross-sector experience in ophthalmology, spanning clinical care, academia, education, advocacy, innovation and industry including leadership roles at Novartis, Gyroscope Therapeutics, and Roche-Genentech.
Talk: Virus-like Drug Conjugates (VDCs) as first-line treatment of early-stage choroidal melanoma.
Australian speakers
A/Prof Claire Phillips is a senior radiation oncologist and Deputy Director of Radiation Oncology at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. Claire’s main clinical research interests are in primary and secondary brain tumours and ocular oncology. She developed Australia’s first stereotactic radiotherapy programme for choroidal melanoma and with colleagues at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital, conducted a world first study of radiation oncology standard fractionation for choroidal melanoma aiming to reduce toxicity
and improve vision outcomes. Claire is an active member of TROG and the Cooperative Group in NeuroOncology (COGNO) and has served on several Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists (RANZCR) committees. Claire is the current Chair of the RANZCR Particle Therapy Working Group and is clinical lead of the project to bring particle therapy to Victoria.
Talk: Stereotactic radiotherapy for posterior choroidal melanoma
A/Prof Tim Luckett is a co-executive of CQUEST – the Cancer Australia funded Quality of Life Technical Service to the 14 Australasian Collaborative Cancer Clinical Trials Groups, including MASC Trials. He is also an Associate Professor at the University of Technology and one of two co-chairs of the ANZ Palliative Care Clinical Studies Collaborative (PaCCSC). Tim brings a perspective at the intersection between health, social and implementation sciences that is needed to inform multi-disciplinary, person-centred care. His research focuses on capturing the ‘voice’ of people with chronic and life-limiting illness and their families, and developing complex interventions to improve their quality of care and outcomes.
Talk: Dealing with uncertainty in the context of metastatic uveal melanoma: A qualitative study
Dr Malaka Ameratunga is a consultant medical oncologist at the Alfred Hospital where he is the Head of Molecular Oncology and Rare Cancers. He completed his PhD on tumour evolution in melanoma in 2023 and has clinical interests in neuro-oncology, rare cancers and drug development.
Talk: Uveal melanoma: Australian treatment landscape
James H Morphett is an Ocularist with over 40 years’ experience, serving patients of all ages spanning from babies and children to adults across Sydney, NSW and internationally. His career started in general optics with a notable stint in Specialist Contact Lens where he was first exposed to Ocular Prosthetics. James first established his own practice in 1985 with an aim to supply the best possible prosthetic care. To this end, James has made it a point to collaborate closely with colleagues in Australia and overseas, including those in Europe, UK, Canada and USA. James was the founding president of the Ocularist Association of Australia and currently serves as the Association’s Vice President. Beyond his professional realm, James has been a long-term member of Wamberal Surf Lifesaving Club and has recently become involved in the Disabled Surfers Association movement.
Talk: What happens next?
Dr Vivian Chua, is a Vice Chancellor’s Research Fellow at Edith Cowan University (ECU), Perth, Western Australia. She is also lead of Cancer Cell Biology within the Centre for Precision Health at ECU. Vivian obtained her PhD at the University of Western Australia and has been contributing to understanding ocular melanoma since 2015 as a postdoctoral research trainee under the mentorship of Prof Andrew Aplin at Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, USA. She returned to Australia in 2024 to establish her independent research group at ECU to study ocular melanoma. Her research focuses on mechanisms of resistance to therapies and the role of BAP1 mutations in the metastasis of ocular melanoma.
Talk: Identifying the roles of BAP1 in uveal melanoma
Dr Sarah Li is a radiation oncology registrar at Radiation Oncology Princess Alexandra Hospital Raymond Terrace (ROPART) in Brisbane. Her ocular oncology research interest is the treatment of choroidal melanoma using Ruthenium-106 eye plaque brachytherapy.
Talk: Eye Plaque Brachytherapy treatment in Australia’s Sunshine State
Carolyn Alkemade is an experienced regional nurse and good health and well-being have always been a priority. But in March 2025, her life changed with a diagnosis of ocular melanoma in her right eye—a rare cancer she had never even heard of—discovered during a routine eye check. Carolyn is passionate about sharing her story, because early detection saves lives.
Talk: An Eye Opener: Navigating Diagnosis, Distance and Determination
2025 AOMA Summit session chairs
Convenor
Dr Rod O’Day is an ocular oncologist based in Melbourne looking after adults and paediatric patients with eye cancers at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital and Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne. He is a specialist in medical retina and ocular oncology and provides treatments for diabetes, age-related macular degeneration and cataract. He has an active research interest, publishing regularly in the medical literature in his areas of specialisation and presenting at international and local scientific meetings.
Talk: Choroidal naevus vs melanoma
Prof Anthony Joshua is the Chair of the Australasian Ocular Melanoma Alliance (AOMA) and leads the Australian arm of the global Uveal Melanoma Registry. He is Head of Department, Department of Medical Oncology at the Kinghorn Cancer Centre, St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney and the Translational Oncology co-lead at the Garvan Medical Research Institute in Sydney. He is also a Professor at the St Vincent’s Clinical School, University of NSW. Prof Joshua’s research interests include circulating tumour DNA, tumour heterogeneity and autophagy.
Dr Li-Anne Lim is an ocular oncologist, cataract surgeon and general ophthalmologist. She has a special interest in managing adult and paediatric patients with eye cancers and simulating lesions. Following her training at Sydney Eye Hospital, she undertook further subspecialty fellowship training at Wills Eye Hospital, Philadelphia, USA. Li-Anne works at Sydney Eye Hospital, The Children’s Hospital Westmead and Chatswood Private Hospital.
Dr Lotte Fogg is a medical physicist who has worked with ocular brachytherapy for 20 years in several countries and Australian states. She works at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital and the Alfred Hospital, and is proud to be part of a team which uses a multidisciplinary approach to deliver the best possible patient care.
2025 AOMA Summit consumer advisor
Susan Vine was diagnosed with ocular melanoma in 2005 and underwent enucleation (removal of the eye) within two weeks of her diagnosis. She has been supporting other ocular melanoma patients since 2011, and founded the OcuMel Australia and New Zealand Support Group in 2017.
Sponsors
Platinum Sponsor
Medison is a global pharma company providing accelerated access to highly innovative therapies to patients in Australia and international markets. Medison created the first multi-regional commercialisation platform, enabling partnerships with leading biotech and pharma companies to help save and improve the lives of those suffering from the most challenging diseases. For more information about Medison Pharma, visit www.medisonpharma.com
Gold Sponsor
IDEAYA is a precision medicine oncology company committed to the discovery and development of targeted therapeutics for patient populations selected using molecular diagnostics. Our approach integrates capabilities in identifying and validating translational biomarkers with small molecule drug discovery to select patient populations most likely to benefit from our targeted therapies. IDEAYA is applying its early research and drug discovery capabilities to precision medicine targets, including synthetic lethality – which represents an emerging class of precision medicine targets. For more information: www.ideayabio.com
2025 AOMA Summit organising committee
- Convenor: Dr Rod O’Day, Consultant Ophthalmologist at St Vincent’s Private.
- Prof Anthony Joshua, Head of Department, Department of Medical Oncology at the Kinghorn Cancer Centre, St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney, Translational Oncology co-lead at the Garvan Medical Research Institute, and Professor at the St Vincent’s Clinical School, University of NSW.
- Dr Li-Anne Lim, Ocular oncologist, cataract surgeon and general ophthalmologist at Sydney Eye Hospital, The Children’s Hospital Westmead and Chatswood Private Hospital.
- Dr Lotte Fog, Medical physicist at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital and the Alfred Hospital.
- Susan Vine, Founder of OcuMel Australia and New Zealand Support Group.
- Gabrielle Byars, Chief Executive Officer, Melanoma and Skin Cancer Trials and Head of Operations, Melanoma and Skin Cancer Research Centre, Monash University.
Australasian Ocular Melanoma Alliance (AOMA)
The Australasian Ocular Melanoma Alliance (AOMA) is the peak national body representing medical, para-medical, nursing and consumer representatives who aim to improve the care and treatment of ocular melanoma patients in Australia and around the world.
AOMA members include Ophthalmologists, Surgeons, Medical and Radiation Oncologists, Pathologists, Allied Health, Scientists, Researchers and Consumer Representatives from across Australia and New Zealand. The focus of this extensive collaboration is treatment paradigms for ocular melanoma, and current and future research.
Founded in 2017 by Melanoma and Skin Cancer Trials, AOMA is a priority research special interest group.
Visit the AOMA website for more information.
Partnership and fundraising opportunities
Melanoma and Skin Cancer Trials provides a range of benefits to sponsors of its AOMA Virtual Summits. We also support community members to fundraise for our ocular melanoma research. To learn more, please email hello@masc.org.au
Resources
Uveal Melanoma Registry
Gathering data to improve clinical practice for uveal melanoma.
Learn more.
AOMA website
Visit the AOMA website
Patient information brochures
By AOMA and Melanoma Institute Australia
Patient stories
Illana Klevansky
Michelle Taylor
Jessica Rowe
Facebook private patient support group
OcuMel Australia and New Zealand (Ocular Melanoma Support)
This is a private Facebook group for Australian and New Zealand ocular / uveal melanoma patients and their families and carers. Membership rules apply.
Facebook ocular melanoma awareness page
Ocular Melanoma Awareness – AUS
The is a public Facebook page to raise awareness of ocular / uveal melanoma in Australia and New Zealand
Contact
AOMA news
Email: hello@masc.org.au
Phone: +61 3 9903 9022