April 27, 2015  Print

Melanoma researchers at the Westmead Millennium Institute will share in more than $14 million in funding for a national program to study the molecular determinants of risk, progression and treatment response in melanoma.

Melanoma researchers at the Westmead Millennium Institute will share in more than $14 million in funding for a national program to study the molecular determinants of risk, progression and treatment response in melanoma.

The research, funded as part of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Program scheme, was announced by the federal Minister for Health, the Hon. Sussan Ley.

Melanoma Institute Australia tumour samples and data from people receiving targeted and immune treatments for melanoma are driving promising advances.

The research program has also recruited thousands of people from the community, and families with a strong history of melanoma, to lead discovery of melanoma risk genes.

“In the last few years our program has helped drive large-scale genomic analysis of melanoma, and this will continue to be a cornerstone of our research,” says Professor Graham Mann of the Westmead Millennium Institute, Melanoma Institute Australia, and the University of Sydney.

“These approaches have already been highly successful, and we have great hopes for better prevention, detection and treatment of melanoma in the future,” he said.

Melanoma is a major Australian health problem. It is the fourth most common cancer in men and women and has a disproportionately heavy impact on productive years of life because it is among the most common causes of cancer death in younger adults.

Lead researcher, Professor Richard Kefford of Macquarie University and Melanoma Institute Australia, said this is an era of rapid change in the prospects of successfully treating melanoma.

“Melanoma is a dangerous cancer, and this program has real prospects of accelerating its prevention, and early detection, and of making realistic progress towards a cure of metastatic disease,” said Professor Kefford.

The research program will commence in 2016 and the team’s investigators are largely based at the Westmead Millennium Institute for Medical Research, University of Sydney, Centenary Institute, and the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute.

Westmead Millennium Institute has a strong history of melanoma research, helping to discover the first gene that causes a high risk of melanoma in families. They have subsequently found most of the more than 20 gene variations that influence melanoma risk in the community, together with sun exposure. They also found that a variant gene well known to be associated with obesity and carried by 15 per cent of the population, affects melanoma risk – the first genetic connection discovered between body weight and any cancer. Further WMI research showed that sunbeds and solariums have been an important cause of melanoma, especially in young people, and this has led to their banning in most Australia states.