Talking lymphoma with Associate Professor Jake Shortt

Listen to Monash University's Associate Professor Jake Shortt talk about lymphoma research.

15 September was World Lymphoma Awareness Day.  See the Leukaemia Foundation's site for more information.

VCA grant enables research into lymphoma

Dr Zahra Sabouri-Thompson

Patients diagnosed with lymphoma are set to benefit from new research at Monash University thanks to a Victorian Cancer Agency grant.

Research fellow Dr Zahra Sabouri-Thompson, Blood Cancer Therapeutics Laboratory at the Monash Health Translation Precinct was awarded the highly competitive Early Career Seed grant worth $150,000 to improve outcomes for patients with T-cell lymphoma.

Lymphoma is the fifth most common cancer in Australia, and the most common blood cancer. Every year more than 7000 new cases are diagnosed, the incidence having more than doubled in the last 20 years.

Lymphoma is a cancer that develops from either B-cell or T-cells—different types of blood cells of the immune system.

“Unlike B-cell lymphoma, T-cell lymphoma is much harder to treat and often becomes resistant to conventional chemotherapy,” Dr Sabouri-Thompson said.

“Our team has previously noticed that some of the genes that are mutated in T-cell lymphoma are also seen in another disease, myelodysplasia, a bone marrow cancer.”

“This grant enables us to now test an exciting new myelodysplasia drug, Guadecitabine in T-cell lymphoma.”

Dr Sabouri-Thompson said this project will lead to a better understanding of how Guadecitabine works in T-cell lymphoma, translating to improved outcomes for patients with the disease.

The Blood Cancer Therapeutics Laboratory is headed by Associate Professor Jake Shortt, who is also consultant Haematologist at Monash Health.

Gareth Gregory on ABC news

Video link

Haematologist Dr Gareth Gregory on ABC TV news, discussing his world first clinical trial to treat lymphoma patients.  Watch video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fszaavKIM0Q&t=6s

Monash part of world-first clinical trial for lymphoma patients

Mr Potter with Dr Gareth Gregory in the MHTP
Clinical Trials Centre

A novel therapy for aggressive lymphoma is being tested in a world-first clinical trial at the Monash Health Translation Precinct (MHTP).

In early 2015, researchers at Monash University and Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre showed the novel anti-lymphoma therapy is remarkably effective against one of the most aggressive B-cell lymphomas in animal models.

Mr George Potter is the first aggressive B-cell lymphoma patient in Australia—and only second in the world—to receive the new treatment, a drug called dinaciclib, a type of epigenetic therapy that can alter the way a cancer cell reads its own abnormal DNA.

"Certain B-cell lymphomas depend on a cancer causing gene called ‘Myc',” said lead researcher and Monash Health haematologist Dr Gareth Gregory.

"Patients with aggressive lymphoma usually respond well to initial chemotherapy.  Unfortunately, those that relapse or are resistant to upfront therapy have a poor response to further therapies and ultimately have a poor prognosis."

"In the case of aggressive lymphoma, dinaciclib effectively turns off genes that Myc is activating and then kills the cells, including those resistant to conventional chemotherapy," said Dr Gregory.

Dr Gregory and Head of Haematology Research at the School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health (SCS) Associate Professor Jake Shortt have worked on this type of lymphoma for more than seven years and have tested numerous novel and conventional therapies.

"In animal models, dinaciclib is the most effective treatment we have seen to date by a long way," said Associate Professor Shortt. 

"We've even seen results in animal models that have led to some cures—this is something we have never seen before."

Mr Potter is receiving his treatment at the newly opened Clinical Trials Centre at MHTP.

“I am thrilled and very grateful to be part of this trial,” said Mr Potter.

Dr Gregory said initial results from the clinical trial will be available after two to three months of treatment, but overall assessment will take approximately two years.

“We are quite hopeful this therapy will prolong life and provide durable remissions,” added Dr Gregory.

Lymphomas are the most common form of haematological or blood cancer in Australia, and the sixth most common form of cancer overall.  The incidence of lymphomas has more than doubled over the past 20 years and is continuing to rise, for no known reason.