Scientists hope new take on old method will boost the chances of pancreatic cancer patients

Brendan Jenkins and Daniel Croagh reported in The World Today.  Listen to story HERE.

SCS student graduates with MBBS and PhD

Dr Alison Browning and
Professor Michelle Leech

Congratulations Dr Alison Browning who graduated last week with a double degree.  

A student at the School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health (SCS) and the Hudson Institute of Medical Research, Alison was the only student who graduated last Tuesday with her MBBS and PhD.

Alison's thesis examined the link between stomach inflammation (gastritis) and gastric cancer, the second-most lethal cancer in the world.

"Using a preclinical mouse model which develops gastritis and tumours, we identified the role of a protein complex in the stomach called the inflammasome in triggering the growth of stomach tumours," said Alison.

"Increased expression of these inflammasomes is also observed in human gastric cancer tissue biopsies, suggesting that they may serve as a potential therapeutic target in the future."

Alison was supervised by Associate Professor Brendan Jenkins and Professor William Sievert.

Overview of the Cancer and Immune Signalling Laboratory, 12 May

The second CiiiD / CID combined seminar will be held Tuesday 12th May with Prof Brendan Jenkins as speaker.

The seminar will be held 12-1pm in the TRF Seminar Room 1.  Lunch will be available from 11.45am.

Prof Brendan Jenkins

NHMRC Senior Research Fellow

Centre for Innate Immunity and Infectious Diseases

Since establishing his research group at Hudson in 2006, Professor Brendan Jenkins has investigated the roles of IL-6 family cytokines and pattern recognition receptors in stomach and lung cancer, as well as emphysema/chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and other chronic inflammatory conditions (peritonitis, arthritis). Collectively, his research programs incorporate long-standing collaborations with basic scientific researchers, industry, and clinicians both nationwide and overseas. Amongst his scientific achievements are publications in the highest-ranking science and medical research journals, including Cancer Cell, Nature Medicine, Nature, Immunity, Journal of Clinical Investigation, Journal of Experimental Medicine, Cancer Research, Oncogene, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, and Journal of Immunology, among others.

Professor Jenkins is a NHMRC Senior Research Fellow has held numerous other fellowships, including a prestigious Sylvia and Charles Viertel Senior Medical Research Fellowship. In recognition of his research achievements, he has also received many national and international awards, including the Australian Institute for Policy and Science Tall Poppy Award. In addition he is a holder of multiple project grants funded from within Australia (NHMRC, Cancer Council) and overseas (Association for International Cancer Research), and is a regular invited speaker at local and international scientific meetings.

Monash research to improve outcomes for pancreatic cancer patients

Mr Dan Croagh

A collaborative research project including Monash Health pancreatic surgeon Mr Dan Croagh and Hudson Institute of Medical Research senior research fellow Professor Brendan Jenkins has been awarded a grant of $51,500 from the CASS Foundation to improve clinical treatment of pancreatic cancer.

Pancreatic cancer, an inflammation-associated cancer, is the fourth most common cause of cancer death worldwide, with an extremely low 5% five-year survival rate.

“Typically, studies look at gene expression patterns between normal pancreas and cancerous pancreas in order to identify unique signatures, which can be indicative of sensitivity or resistance to specific chemotherapeutic treatments,” said Professor Jenkins, Head, Cancer and Immune Signalling Laboratory, Centre for Innate Immunity and Infectious Diseases.

“To date, gene expression studies have largely focused on samples taken from open surgical biopsy; a procedure known to be very invasive and only possible in 20% of pancreatic cancers.”

Professor Jenkins’ research group at the Hudson Institute, in collaboration with Mr Daniel Croagh, Director of Research, Department of Upper Gastrointestinal and Hepatobiliary Surgery at Monash Medical Centre, recently trialled an alternative and less invasive process available to nearly all pancreatic cancer patients known as endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspirate (EUS-FNA).

“EUS-FNA uses a thin, hollow needle to collect the samples of cells from which genetic material can be extracted and analysed,” said Mr Croagh, who is also a senior lecturer in the Department of Surgery, School of Clinical Sciences at Monash University.

“Our challenge is to ensure gene sequencing from EUS-FNA samples is comparable to open surgical biopsy such that established analysis and treatment can be used.”

Results from this study so far show that data from EUS-FNA-derived samples are of high quality and also allow the identification of gene expression signatures between normal and cancerous pancreas.

Professor Jenkins’ group is now confident that EUS-FNA-derived material not only has the potential to capture nearly all of pancreatic cancer patients (compared to ~20% by surgery), but to also improve patient management and their treatment in the clinic.

Professor Jenkins said that using next generation gene sequencing, involving big instruments, big data and big computing – allows near-term disruptive change in the clinical treatment of pancreatic cancer.

“Next generation sequencing at the Monash Health Translational Precinct (MHTP) Medical Genomics Facility will be performed to identify candidate known and hitherto unknown cancer driver genes via their altered gene expression (RNA) and/or mutational (DNA) status,” added Professor Jenkins.

The clinical study, once approved by ethics, will also be performed at Epworth under the leadership of Mr Daniel Croagh using the resources from Epworth’s Clinical Research Centre. 

“Upon the successful completion of our study, the primary outcome will be laying the foundation for the introduction into clinical practice of EUS-FNA as a standard method of screening pancreatic cancer patients for molecular "signatures" which can predict the responsiveness of individual tumours to current therapies.”

Importantly, such signatures could also provide novel molecular targets for future personalized therapeutics.

“Our study highlights the benefits provided by collaboration between clinician researchers and basic scientists,” said Mr Croagh. 

Ultimately, the research team aims to increase the number of pancreatic cancer patients that respond to personalized therapy, and therefore improve upon the overall poor 5-year survival rate which has remained stagnant at 5% over the last few decades.