Project title: Antibody-based biomarkers in melanoma
Contact details:
Dr. Jessica Duarte Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Cancer Immunobiology Laboratory
Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute
Level 5, ONJCWC, 145 Studley Road, Heidelberg, Vic 3084 Australia
T: +61 3 9496 9370 | E: Jessica.Duarte@onjcri.org.au |W: www.onjcri.org.au
Lay summary:
Melanoma, commonly known as Australia’s national cancer, is the deadliest type of skin cancer and its incidence is continuing to increase worldwide. Locally, melanoma is also the most commonly diagnosed cancer in adolescents and young adults aged between 15 and 29 years1. Novel medical research aimed at improving the diagnosis and treatment of melanoma is a field of great necessity nation-wide.
Our proposed research primarily focuses on this cancer type, investigating the potential of a novel array to diagnose early-stage disease and monitor clinical response to therapy, therefore aiding in the prediction and monitoring of disease recurrence, as well as the prevention of disease progression, as a means of obtaining key knowledge in regards to the array’s clinical applicability.
The array represents an unprecedented highly sensitive and high-throughput means to detect and quantify the presence of large panels of cancer-specific human antibodies (produced by the body as a reaction to the cancer) in patient blood, allowing for robust, high quality data 2,3. Preliminary data has shown that these antibodies are only present in cancer patients, and that their amount varies
significantly after distinct treatments.
Antibody profiling may clarify whether a tumour is visible or hidden from the immune system, thus providing key immunological insight that may guide a personalised therapeutic approach4. Given the reduced lifespan of antibodies (?3 months), we should also be able to distinguish between patients
where a complete disease clearance occurred with treatment and those where residual disease remains and needs to be closely monitored and possibly subjected to further treatment.
Clinical applications of this array include the prospective identification of cancer biomarkers, which could greatly aid in cancer detection and significantly improve patient management and clinical outcomes, thus positively impacting the lives of melanoma patients and their families.
Additionally, we will benchmark the array against an established way to detect and monitor cancer progression in blood (ctDNA technology), which is currently limited by the required presence of a specific cancer mutation in melanoma patients, thus testing the performance of the array in comparison to this technology and thereby identifying future directions5.
Furthermore, given that preliminary evidence demonstrates the potential for the use of this array across other cancer types, we intend to investigate this further, thus potentially augmenting the translatability and prospective benefits of this medical innovation to all those affected by cancer.
- Schadendorf D, Fisher DE, Garbe C, et al. Melanoma. Nat Rev Dis Prim. 2015;(August):15003.
- Beeton-Kempen N, Duarte J, Shoko A, et al. Development of a novel, quantitative protein microarray platform for the multiplexed serological analysis of autoantibodies to cancer-testis Int J Cancer. 2014;135(8):1842-1851.
- Duarte J, Serufuri J-M, Mulder N, Blackburn J. Protein Function Microarrays: Design, Use and Bioinformatic Analysis in Cancer Biomarker Discovery and Quantitation. In: Bioinformatics of Human Proteomics, Translational Bioinformatics 3.; 2013:39-74.
- Robinson Antigen arrays for antibody profiling. Curr Opin Chem Biol. 2006;10(1):67-72.
- Dawson S-J, Tsui DWY, Murtaza M, et al. Analysis of Circulating Tumor DNA to Monitor Metastatic Breast Cancer. N Engl J Med. 2013;368(13):1199-1209.