Formed in 2010, Snowdome seeks to improve outcomes for Australians with blood cancers (myeloma, lymphoma, leukaemia). The charity’s aim is to ‘unlock new treatments’ by channelling government and philanthropic investment into early phase human clinical trials of next-generation drugs and therapies.

So how is pathology involved?

Molecular pathology techniques are used to diagnose all blood cancers including myeloma, leukaemia and lymphoma.

Pathology testing also shows how a person is responding to a novel treatment during clinical trials, and for patients who may have exhausted other options, access to these treatments can be lifesaving.

Snowdome funds projects based at several different institutions including the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and Epworth HealthCare.

Nicole Brooks, Research Program Manager, Molecular Oncology and Cancer Immunology Department (MOCI) Epworth HealthCare said;

“As researchers, we want to ask more questions and as a result of the efforts of the Snowdome Foundation, Epworth Medical Foundation and other philanthropic organisations we are in a fortunate position to continue our research efforts.

“Our research is not just tinkering in the lab in the way many people might think. Rather, a group effort to provide desperate patients an alternative option and when we can prove that something is actually working, we can then make a case to get access to new drugs for more patients.”

As cancer therapy is increasingly delivered as precision treatment, this requires precision diagnostics.

Dr Piers Blombery is a Consultant Haematologist and medical lead of Peter Mac’s Molecular Haematology Laboratory. This lab runs an Australia-wide genomic testing service which from a blood sample can identify genes or genetic irregularities known to drive cancer.

“For the patient it’s no more difficult than a standard blood test, and the information we get is very powerful in guiding and personalising their treatment,” says Dr Blombery.

“It often means we can rule out approaches that won’t work, or will have a very poor response, and instead go down treatment pathways that should get the best results.”

For example, every year about 1000 Australians are diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL). Genomic testing can reveal whether these patients have either an IGHV or TP53 gene irregularity.

Both are clinically important. CLL patients with an IGHV irregularity respond well to standard chemo-immunotherapy, and this treatment can give them long-term remissions.

“Alternatively, we also know CLL patients with a TP53 irregularity will likely have a very poor response to standard chemo-immunotherapy,” Dr Blombery says.

“These patients do better on novel agents such as BTK inhibitors or BH3-mimetic agents which are currently accessible through clinical trials or compassionate access programs.”

“It is genomic testing that allows us to find these irregularities and ensure patients get the treatments most likely to work for them.”

Dr Blombery also said when performing genomic testing, new clinically important gene irregularities can be discovered. These are passed to researchers who are looking to better understand the fundamental drivers of cancer.

“The more of these gene irregularities we know of, the more we can develop potential new anti-cancer drugs and also personalise treatments so patients have better outcomes.”

Miriam Dexter, CEO of Snowdome Foundation, said;

“Based on international evidence, we know that patients have better outcomes on clinical trials, but many people will be unaware that due to our small population, Australian patients are rarely included in blood cancer trials”.

“That is the mission of Snowdome, to ensure more early phase clinical trials are initiated here in Australia.”

The type of research we fund is not confined to the laboratory, but relies on pathology testing to monitor success and manage patient welfare, as well as the development of companion diagnostic tests that are the gateway to novel therapies.”

To learn more about Snowdome Foundation visit snowdome.org.au

IMAGE: Supplied by Snowdome Foundation, taken at Cartherics Lab (MHTP).

The post How Snowdome Foundation is making hope real in the blood cancer battle first appeared on Know Pathology Know Healthcare.

Since 1998 Australians of all ages have been shaving their hair to raise money for blood cancer research and patient support.

Every day 35 Australians are diagnosed with a blood cancer through pathology – leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma are some of the most common types. And although research and improved treatments are increasing survival rates, sadly one Australian dies from blood cancer every two hours.

This year’s campaign has raised over $12 million and part of that total is thanks to a group of collection staff from Dorevitch Pathology in Victoria.

Kim Cam, Jennifer Wong, Sandy Wignall, Marie Obanana and Julia Barwick go by the name of Path Chicks and all the women, plus 11-year old Jesse Finney, shaved off their hair earlier this month, raising an incredible $12,000 in the process.

All blood cancer patients rely on pathology for diagnosis as well as monitoring during their treatment and follow up to make sure the cancer doesn’t return. There are a multitude of staff in the lab involved in this process but the face of pathology for those patients is their collector.

Waiting for a diagnosis and the subsequent treatment journey is a scary and stressful time for a patient – a friendly collector can go a long way in putting someone at ease. But the Path Chicks wanted to go one step further in helping patients. As Kim puts it;

“It’s our patients that have inspired us to take part in the World’s Greatest Shave, some of them on their own special journey. It’s their strength, courage, bravery and friendships that led us to create the Path Chicks. This is our way of showing our support.”

Jennifer previously worked on a student placement in a dedicated cancer hospital, giving her an extra insight into the services needed to care for patients and their families.

There were more personal reasons amongst the group for wanting to take part too. Julia, for example, was prompted to join up after her father in law’s battle with leukaemia, whilst Lorraine, who worked tirelessly to fundraise with local businesses, wanted to help having lost a family member to the disease. Even Jesse, at just 11 years old understands the devastating effects of cancer, having seen family members go through diagnosis and treatment. In her own words; “cancer is such a bad thing & hopefully they will find a cure.”

Fundraising events like the World’s Greatest Shave, and the people willing to give up their time (and in this case hair!) to make them a success, play a big role in hopefully making that dream a reality one day.

It’s not too late to support the Path Chicks – donations are open until June and can be made on the link here.

The post “It’s our patients that have inspired us” – the collectors who have raised over $12,000 for cancer patients first appeared on Know Pathology Know Healthcare.

• Pathology liaison officer, Dian Kazandjian saw the value of pathology first hand when her only child, Sean, was diagnosed with leukaemia

• Dian reserves special praise for the laboratory staff who helped diagnose and monitor her son’s illness

• In 2015, Sean lost his courageous battle with leukaemia and passed away at the age of 18 due to an absence of compatible bone marrow donors

Dian Kazandjian’s personal life crossed over into her professional life at San Pathology, Sydney Adventist Hospital after her 15-year-old son, Sean developed two mysterious lumps in his neck.

As soon as her doctor had performed a blood test on Sean, Dian delivered the blood by hand to her colleagues at San Pathology. Within the space of 4.5 hours, Sean’s illness had been diagnosed as Acute Myeloid Leukaemia. A Haematologist organised for Sean to be admitted to the Oncology Ward, at the Children’s Hospital Westmead NSW. Sean was treated with chemotherapy for the remainder of that year and received the ‘all clear’ just before Christmas. He returned to school and completed year 11 in 2013 and then mid-year 12 exams in 2014.

In April 2014 Sean relapsed and his family was told that a stem cell transplant was his best chance to survive. Although this operation had the potential to cure Sean’s leukaemia, he was still at risk of either relapsing again or suffering Graft versus Host Disease (the process where the donor’s and patient’s white blood cells start attacking each other).

Transplant coordinators launched an international donor search at the Children’s Hospital Westmead. After several weeks of searching no compatible bone marrow donor could be found. The transplant coordinators then commenced a search for a suitable cord blood donor and found the closest matching cord blood donor in France. Although the match was not fully compatible there was no other option found and the process began to use this donor’s cord blood stem cells for the transplant.

The cord blood stem cell transplant was performed on 1 September 2014. Within 11 days donor white cells were detectable in Sean’s blood. At the 2-week post-transplant mark, Graft versus Host Disease (GvHD) started to emerge as Sean became more unwell.

During the ensuing nine months, the GvHD continued to wreak havoc with Sean’s body as it attacked multiple sites in his body including his lungs, skin, gastrointestinal tract, eyes and bladder. He needed multiple potent immunosuppressive medications to limit the damage done by the GvHD. However, in April 2015, the immunosuppressive drugs were no longer able to contain the GvHD and the symptoms intensified. Sean finally lost his battle with leukaemia and GvHD and passed away in the Oncology Ward on 24 May 2015 at the age of 18.

The personal experience of Sean’s diagnosis and illness has left an indelible impression on Dian’s family regarding the value of pathology in the diagnosis and laboratory monitoring of Sean’s illness. Dian commented:

“As a parent and fellow colleague, I have seen firsthand the tremendous dedication and hard work of the pathology staff at San Pathology, Children’s Hospital laboratory, Red Cross Blood Bank and the Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry in providing a caring and quality service to all patients.”

“In addition, Sean received the most wonderful care at the Children’s Hospital Westmead where he was treated by the Oncology and Stem Cell Transplant teams as well as many of the hospital’s extensive services. Throughout Sean’s treatment at the hospital, our little family with Sean being our only child, were supported and cared for in the most nurturing of ways.”

The post A mother learns the true value of pathology during her son’s tragic battle with leukaemia first appeared on Know Pathology Know Healthcare.

Paul is a medical scientist at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane. He specialises in haematology and so is often involved in diagnosing blood cancers such as leukaemia. Paul says,

“There are many different types of blood cancer and my job is to identify what type of cancer a patient has which determines the type of treatment they require. Blood cancer is more common that what you think. It doesn’t discriminate between anyone, it affects all of us regardless of our age, race or gender.”

Paul’s initial target was $4,800 which would fund three months of laboratory costs for research into a cure. His final to date will double that.
“I hope this one small act goes a long way towards finding better treatment options and eventually a cure for all blood cancers.”

If you’d like to get behind Paul and help find a cure for blood cancers visit his sponsorship page here.

The post Great hair day as medical scientist raises thousands for cancer research first appeared on Know Pathology Know Healthcare.

At the age of 8 Bridgette asked for a microscope for Christmas and told her mum she wanted to be a haematologist. She was later diagnosed with leukaemia via a routine blood test and has been undergoing treatment for over a year.

We took Bridgette inside the lab where her diagnosis was made to meet the pathology team who conducted the test and see the original blood film that led to her being rushed to hospital one Friday evening.

Bridgette is also a keen inventor and has won a trip to NASA for creating a handy sticking plaster dispenser, congratulations Bridgette!

Genome.One became the first Australian institute sequencing whole human genomes, giving hope to people with rare genetic conditions

Professor Leslie Burnett told us that whole genome sequencing is pretty special. Scientists can look at all a person’s genetic information – about 100 times more data than was previously available to clinicians. “Barely a week goes by that we don’t come across something we haven’t seen before,” said Prof Burnett, “Put simply, this test can provide the answers that no other test is capable of.”

The first patients to undergo sequencing are those most likely to benefit; where all other testing has been exhausted and rare genetic conditions may be the cause of illness.

International experts praised Australian pathology

Despite being fast, accurate and an integral part of healthcare, pathology isn’t often in the public eye. However, while visiting Brisbane in September, American pathology expert Paul Epner wrote that Pathology is chronically undervalued and it needs to stop.

Another big name in the pathology world, editor of the widely read Dark Daily, Robert Michel visited Sydney in November and suggested that strategic use of testing could benefit the Australian health budget, in short; If you want to save money, test more, not less.

DNA leading the way

Amazing breakthroughs in DNA testing have happened this year and the progress in genetics could soon revolutionise how doctors test and treat cancer and other conditions with a genetic component. Genetic testing is already used to personalise medicine for certain cancers but some of this year’s most exciting advances are in ‘liquid biopsy’ techniques and the magical world of CRISPR.

We took 23 politicians into the lab to see the power of pathology

From the Leader of the Opposition visiting labs in 5 states to Senator Jan McLucas in Mackay seeing how valuable pathology is for remote communities, a total of twenty-three politicians joined us inside the engine room of healthcare in 2016.

Full details of all the parliamentarians who have toured pathology labs are available on our politicians page.

The post Our top 5 pathology moments of 2016 first appeared on Know Pathology Know Healthcare.

ANDREW Bloxsom has a long road ahead.

After being diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukaemia, a type of blood cancer, the usually fit 40-year-old father has had to shift gears.

The condition is incurable but thanks to recent medical advances there is treatment to manage the disease and increase life expectancy.

He is now trying to raise awareness and funds for the Leukaemia Foundation.

“I did everything a bloke wouldn’t normally do,” Mr Bloxsom said. “I went for a routine check-up and I got the blood test even though I was busy getting ready to go overseas.”

The blood tests returned a devastating result and he was rushed to hospital.

“I was feeling fine, that was the weird thing. But doctors said my body was starting to go into shutdown and if I had kept going, in a week or two who knows if I would have been alive.

“I would have been overseas at the time.”

Since his treatment began in May, Mr Bloxsom has grappled with fatigue, nausea and a “diminished mental capacity”.

But that hasn’t stopped him from gearing up for a fundraising cycle ride.

This weekend Mr Bloxsom will hit the road with friend Will Richards and ride to Canberra.

Mr Richards was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma last year and has a gruelling road to recovery as well.

For Mr Bloxsom, full recovery is not an option. “I don’t have a light at the end of the tunnel,” he said. “It’s all about management.

“The main thing out of it for me is years.”

To contribute to the fundraising, head to Every Day Hero.

The post Friends defy cancer diagnoses and gear up for charity bike ride first appeared on Know Pathology Know Healthcare.

In July, she was thrilled to see inside a pathology lab and meet the team who saved her life with a fast diagnosis of leukaemia.

When her parents received the diagnosis one Friday night she was rushed to hospital for an emergency blood transfusion.

She wants to be a haematologist when she is older but Bridgette has already ventured into the world of medical technology, inventing a dispenser for sticking plasters, after seeing her mother and the nurses treating her struggling with their packaging.

The ten year old came up with a dispenser similar to that used for sticky tape.

The roll of plasters would have perforated edges every 4cm to allow users to simply tear each one off. A protective plastic layer would keep the strips sterile.

The Herald Sun reported that her idea has seen her named one of four Victorian students among the nation’s best young inventors as part of Origin’s “littleBIGidea” competition.

Another medically inspired idea from one of the young inventors is flavoured medicine icy-poles to encourage kids to take their medication.

The national winner will win a trip to NASA in the USA.

The post Ten-year-old leukaemia patient Bridgette becomes an inventor first appeared on Know Pathology Know Healthcare.