Minister for Aged Care and Minister for Indigenous Health, Ken Wyatt AM, said the $9.4 million grant to Flinders University’s College of Medicine and Public Health would help tackle the world’s leading cause of irreversible blindness.

“The potential to personalise treatment through genetics is exciting because glaucoma already affects approximately 300,000 Australians, with up to 80 million predicted to suffer from the disease worldwide by 2020,” Minister Wyatt said.

“It’s long been known that a family history of glaucoma means increased risk but there are no symptoms or warning signs in the early stages.

“Testing is vital and, although there is no cure, with treatment glaucoma can be controlled and further loss of sight either prevented or slowed.”

Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases in which the optic nerve at the back of the eye is slowly destroyed. In most people this damage is due to an increased pressure inside the eye as a result of a build-up of fluid.

Sight loss is usually gradual and a considerable amount of peripheral vision may be gone before people are aware of any problem.

Member for Boothby, Nicolle Flint MP, said the research grant would support the work of Flinders University.
“Eye and vision science is one of Flinders University’s key strengths in both teaching and research,” Ms Flint said.

“Researchers at Flinders University will examine new ways to diagnose and treat glaucoma, promising better outcomes for patients. Improved care will also result from better targeting of treatments and monitoring of low risk cases.

“Health and medical research is a powerful investment and one that delivers immense benefits to patients and to the economy.”

The annual economic cost of glaucoma in Australia has been estimated at more than $144 million.

“Research based on knowledge of the genes that lead to glaucoma blindness will have important real-world impacts in reducing the worldwide suffering caused by this common condition,” Minister Wyatt said.

The post Genetics promise personalised treatment to prevent glaucoma blindness first appeared on Know Pathology Know Healthcare.

Multiple myeloma is a form of blood cancer that currently has no cure. It can be treated but the cancer will return – even with the most state-of-the-art treatment. The cancer targets plasma cells and then invades the bone marrow, where the cancerous plasma cells crowd out healthy blood cells. This in turn can lead to other serious health problems including kidney damage and increased likelihood of infection.

The research team, led by the university’s Carbone Cancer Centre but including another 14 cancer research centres, is hoping to change this by conducting the first large-scale trial of a ‘personalized vaccine’ to fight tumors.

The trial will use a patient’s own immune cells combined with their tumor cells to fight the cancer and stop it from recurring. Dr Natalie Callander, head of the trial at UW Carbone, said;

“We’re trying to train the immune system to be constantly surveying to identify and wipe out the re-emerging cancer cells.’’

The team will collect the cancer cells from participating patients and freeze them. Once the patient has undergone chemotherapy to reduce the cancer, their cancer cells will be fused with their own blood cells. The researchers hope that this will generate an immune response which can fight the tumor as quickly as it appears. Dr Callander added;

“This trial is taking personalized medicine to the next level, by making a vaccine from the patient’s own tumors.’’

For more details you can read Dr Callander’s full statement.

The post Personalized medicine on a whole new level for mutliple myeloma first appeared on Know Pathology Know Healthcare.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, so we decided to look at the various ways in which pathology is integral to the effective treatment of breast cancer.

Kathy Wells, Head of Policy, Research and Advocacy at Breast Cancer Network Australia (BCNA) said “Breast cancer is no longer considered to be one disease. There are many different subtypes and the pathology report provides important information to help clinicians and their patients decide the best treatment for each woman’s particular type of breast cancer.”

Pathology’s role in diagnosis

Investigations for breast cancer may begin with an abnormality detected in a mammogram or following a patient noticing an unfamiliar lump in their breast, but a confirmed diagnosis of breast cancer can only be given by pathology testing.

Not all lumps are malignant therefore a tissue sample must be tested. A sample or biopsy of the lump is taken and then examined by a pathologist who will confirm if the lump is cancerous or establish that it is benign.

Pathology provides vital answers

A person with confirmed breast cancer will undergo surgery to have the tumour removed and the tissue is given to a pathologist to examine.

From this surgical sample, the pathologist extracts important information about the tumour type and size. The pathologist will also look at the amount of uninvolved healthy breast tissue which separates the tumour from the ‘margins of excision’ – the edges of the tissue the surgeon has removed. This is important as a measure of complete tumour removal.

The pathologist will examine the same sample to determine a number of possibilities; whether the tumour has spread to adjacent body tissues, if the tumour cells are responsive to the hormones oestrogen and progesterone, and if they express the hallmarks of the HER2 gene or the characteristics of tumours which may be inherited within families.

This forms the advanced information needed by the cancer specialist to determine exactly which treatments should be offered to that person; this is now known as personalised medicine.

How pathology informs treatment

People with breast cancer may need to undergo chemotherapy to treat cancer cells left in the body after surgery and help prevent cancer coming back.

Several different drugs are available to treat cancer, and which drug is most appropriate will depend on the characteristics of cancer, such as what stage it is at and whether it is HER2 positive or negative.

Drugs that are listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) for the treatment of breast cancer can be subsidised, but only for patients who meet the eligibility criteria. A pathology report is a vital part of demonstrating a patient’s eligibility for access to these drugs.

Trastuzumab works by blocking signals to certain receptors on the surface of cancer cells. The receptors being targeted are made by the HER2 gene and so are called HER2 receptors. When cancer has an ‘overexpression’ of HER2 meaning too many copies of the HER2 gene, more receptors are produced causing cancer to grow quickly. This is called HER2 positive breast cancer.

The drug works on HER2 receptors, it is most effective for patients whose cancer is HER2 positive and is unlikely to be effective for HER2 negative breast cancer. That is why pathology is essential to determine whether or not the drug is right for a patient, and to help them gain access to it.

Monitoring during treatment

Alongside personalising treatment by using genetic information, pathology is also used to help doctors fine-tune chemotherapy. Blood tests will help doctors to monitor neutrophils – a type of white blood cell. As chemotherapy works by “knocking out” the immune system, monitoring white blood cell levels helps doctors understand how a patient is responding to treatment. They can then adjust the dosage and frequency of chemotherapy to ensure the best outcomes for patients.

The post “Pathology is vital when you’re battling cancer” first appeared on Know Pathology Know Healthcare.