Breakthrough research set to improve diagnosis and treatment of ovarian cancer

An extensive program of research at RMIT is tackling ovarian cancer through pre-clinical and clinical trial research leveraging immunology, genetics, bioinformatics, novel therapeutics and diagnostics.

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Magdalena Plebanski SOLACE2 ovarian cancer immunotherapy vaccines bioinformatics clinical trials

Distinguished Professor Magdalena Plebanski is an internationally renowned leader in immunology and bionanotechnology research and Head of the Cancer, Ageing, and Vaccines (CAVA) Research Group at RMIT University. Plebanski has over 230 publications in scientific journals and over 40 patents in 10 patent families.

Tackling the low survival rates of ovarian cancer

Led by Distinguished Professor Magdalena Plebanski at the University’s Cancer, Ageing and Vaccines Laboratory (CAVA), the highly collaborative research is focused on improving early detection, developing new treatments and personalising therapy for ovarian cancer.

Ovarian cancer has the highest mortality rate of any gynaecological malignancy. Seventy percent of women are already at an advanced stage by the time the cancer is detected.

“Unfortunately, survival outcomes for ovarian cancer are very poor, with statistics and treatments not changing in decades,” Plebanski said.

An immunological approach to optimising cancer treatment

Plebanski said that despite the current outcomes for ovarian cancer patients, she is optimistic about the future.

“The field of immunology offers many new opportunities for optimising cancer treatment,” said Plebanski.

We are increasingly understanding the importance of treating a whole human being rather than just parts.

“And immunology is intrinsically integrative and holistic with the immune system interacting with the brain and gut and affecting all sorts of diseases,” she said.

We are incorporating a holistic approach to understand how to best support a cancer patient by understanding those links with overall health, and developing new treatments, particularly immunotherapies.

To actively pursue this approach to combat cancer, the CAVA Research Group has developed a wide network of collaborations across Australia and significant partnerships across India, Malaysia and Mexico.

“We are now operating as a central hub for doing translational research in cellular immunology with more than 20 hospitals, and several not-for-profit organisations and large pharmaceuticals,” said Plebanski.

Snapshot of some key projects at CAVA

Improving outcomes through early detection

Plebanski said a big problem in successfully treating ovarian cancer is that it often gets detected too late because the symptoms are vague.

One of our group’s projects aims to identify immune-based biomarkers that will help detect ovarian cancer in the early stages so that women can receive the correct treatment earlier and have an increased chance of survival.

The project is co-led by RMIT postdoctoral researcher Dr April Kartikasari collaborating further with multiple institutions, including the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation and Dr Andrew Stephens from the Hudson Institute of Medical Research.

The team has made significant progress in identifying early detection biomarkers by enlisting big data analysis focusing on finding biomarkers in blood, to practically access information, even before a tumour is detectable.

The markers that have been identified by the team to date occur in the early stages of cancer development and appear well before a tumour can be detected with a conventional test or scan.

Multi-disciplinary collaboration to develop a handheld device for early detection

Integrated Photonics and Applications Centre research team: Dr April Kartikasari, Distinguished Professor Magdalena Plebanksi, Dr Cesar Sanchez Huertas and Distinguished Professor Arnan Mitchell..

The CAVA diagnostic team is also collaborating with RMIT researchers Dr Arnan Mitchell and nanobiotechnologist Dr Cesar Sanchez Huertas from RMIT’s Integrated Photonics and Applications Centre (InPAC) to translate these biomarkers into biosensing devices the size of a fingernail.

Sanchez said the goal would be to use the biomarkers as a routine test that could be done by a GP and potentially read from an iPhone.

Our aim is for this technology to accurately detect novel ovarian cancer-related markers from just a tiny pinprick of blood, in minutes.

The project is supported by a $1 million National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Ideas Grant.

Developing new treatments - vaccines and immunotherapies

A groundbreaking ovarian cancer trial and project to develop and personalise the application of new immunotherapies is underway.

Co-led by Professor Plebanski at RMIT (Translational Chair) with Professor Clare Scott (Clinical Trial Chair) at WEHI, Associate Professor Chee Lee (NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre, University of Sydney) and Professor Michael Friedlander (Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney)(Clinical Trial co-Chairs), the SOLACE2 Phase 2 clinical trial is running in 15 hospitals across Australia. It was co-designed to trial new drug combinations, including immunotherapies, and to identify the biomarkers that would help direct each patient to the best treatment for them, based on both their immune and genetic characteristics.

While the SOLACE2 trial is creating detailed immunological profiles of the best responders to the treatments, with additional funding support from the Victorian Medical Research Acceleration Fund (VMARF), the teams at RMIT and WEHI are also tracking the presence of antigens and neoantigens in these patients that could become the target of new cancer vaccines. The aim would be to help prevent a recurrence in individual patients and identify common targets to become the basis of broad vaccine-based strategies for all women with ovarian cancer.

RMIT Professor Magdalena Plebanski and WEHI Professor Clare Scott AM looking at samples. Credit: WEHI.

Developing new gold-based drugs to overcome platinum resistant disease

Current treatments for ovarian cancer are largely toxic, and ultimately, ineffective for many patients. A collaboration between Distinguished Professor Plebanski and RMIT’s Distinguished Professor Bhargava teams from the School of Science is working towards treatments using a novel class of gold-based drugs that show superior selectivity and activity for otherwise drug-resistant ovarian cancer cells.

This project is being run jointly with the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology.

Personalising treatments

Plebanski said that individuals can respond differently to different drugs, making it difficult to determine the best treatment for each person with ovarian cancer.

We want to understand why some women respond to the standard therapy, but others don’t, and which drugs may be better for preventing the cancer from recurring.

“At the moment, 60-70% of women respond to the standard carboplatin drug, but about 80% of those will have a cancer recurrence.

“And other drugs may have a more enduring response for some women, but only 30% may respond to them,” she said.

“We are collaborating with the hospitals and using the biobanks and novel laboratory big data techniques to identify biomarkers in the blood that will predict who is going to respond to which drug.

This will help personalise therapy and help tailor treatment to ensure each person is being given the best drug for them.

Key contact

Distinguished Professor Magdalena Plebanski
Head of the Translational Immunology and Nanotechnology Theme
Head of the Cancer, Ageing, and Vaccines Laboratory
School of Health and Biomedical Sciences, STEM College
Director of RMIT’s Biomedical and Health Innovation Enabling Impact Platform

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