World-First Cancer Breakthrough Tests Hundreds of Clues in One Biopsy to Guide Treatment

In a world-first discovery, doctors can now check hundreds of markers in a single biopsy to show which treatments, like immunotherapy, chemotherapy or radiotherapy, will work best for patients with head and neck cancer. 

The study by our collaborators at Queensland Spatial Biology Centre (QSBC), published in Nature Precision Oncology, is likely the largest discovery protein study of its kind for translational cancer research. 

Led by Associate Professor Arutha Kulasinghe, the research is the first to profile hundreds of proteins and thousands of gene messages from a single tissue slide, examining samples from 84 patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, the 7th most common cancer globally with nearly 890,000 new cases worldwide each year.

“We’ve shown for the first time that we can measure hundreds of clues from a single hospital biopsy to unlock the secrets of head and neck cancer. This lets doctors personalise treatments to give patients the best chance of beating cancer,” said A/Prof Arutha Kulasinghe.

Continue reading via The Wesley Research Institute’s website.