Peter Mac News

Peter Mac Medical Oncologist Dr Prachi Bhave explained that the research project will analyse a range of factors to help predict which patients are at higher risk of having a recurrence of their melanoma after it has been surgically removed.

“We will characterise the melanoma tumour micro-environment using novel multiomic technologies to better understand the biological factors that cause the cancer to reoccur,” said Dr Bhave.

“To do this we will use patient data and tissue and blood samples from the Melanoma Research Victoria comprehensive database, which includes data on over 3500 patients diagnosed with melanoma.

“When we understand the clinical, pathological, molecular, and genomic characteristics associated with early-stage melanoma recurrence, we will be able to uncover prognostic and predictive biomarkers of early-stage melanoma recurrence

“This will allow us to closely monitor patients at high risk of having a return of their melanoma and aim to detect this recurrence before it becomes advanced. 

“This important research will help us improve the outcomes of the thousands of Victorians diagnosed with melanoma each year,” she said.

Australia has the highest incidence of melanoma in the world. Melanoma was the fourth most diagnosed cancer in Victoria in 2020 and it is estimated to become the third most diagnosed cancer by 2023.

This research project is funded through the 2022 Victorian Government - 2022 VMRAF - Round 6 - Tier 1 application and is conducted in collaboration with the WEHI. 

If you would like to further support melanoma research please consider a donation to the Peter Mac Foundation.