Tracey O’Brien: Melanoma Institute Australia is moving the dial in understanding and personalizing treatment melanoma for AYA

Tracey O’Brien shared a post by Melanoma Institute Australia on LinkedIn, adding:

“The most common cancer in teens, youths, and young adults in NSW is melanoma. This recent Nature Communications paper by the team at Melanoma Institute Australia is moving the dial in understanding and personalizing melanoma treatment for adolescent and young adults (AYA) cancers.”

Quoting Melanoma Institute Australia’s post:

“Melanoma is the most common cancer in adolescent and young adult (AYA) Australians aged 20-39. A new study from MIA has identified factors that predetermine the likelihood of a young patients response to immunotherapy.

The research work was carried out by Catherine (Xinyu) Bai, who is the first author of this paper, and was led by Dr. Camelia Quek, Professor James Wilmott, Professor Georgina Long and Professor Richard Scolyer.

This comprehensive study, using multi-omics and spatial biology, identified distinct stroma-infiltrating lymphocyte (SIL) subtypes and young immunosuppressive melanoma (YIM) scores that impact the outcomes of response and resistance to immunotherapy. This then informs more personalized drug treatment for AYA patients.

You can read the article here.”

Source: Tracey O’Brien/LinkedIn and Melanoma Institute Australia/LinkedIn

Tracey O’Brien is the NSW Chief Cancer Officer and CEO of the Cancer Institute NSW, Australia. Before her current role, Tracey was Director of the Kids Cancer Centre, Sydney Children’s Hospital, and Director of the Transplant and Cellular Therapy Program.

Tracey has held numerous high-profile national and international leadership positions, including Advisory Chair, Cancer Australia; V/Chair (Africa, Asia and Australasia) International Centre for Bone Marrow Transplant Research and V/President of the Australian and New Zealand Children’s Oncology Group. In recognition of her exceptional contributions, Tracey was profiled in 2023 as one of the world’s foremost women in paediatric cancer by the International Society of Paediatric Oncology.

In 2019 Tracey was named in the Australian Financial Review’s prestigious Top 10 Women of Influence, winning the Innovation category. In addition to her medical expertise, Tracey has a Master of Law (Health) and executive MBA and serves as a conjoint Professor in Clinical Medicine (UNSW) and Honorary Professor in Science and Engineering (Macquarie University). Dr. O’Brien remains committed to mentoring the next generation of clinician leaders and maintains an active clinical practice in cancer survivorship at Sydney Children’s Hospital.