Improving precision medicine by tailoring the treatment to the patient

Sandra’s grant is funded by Cure Cancer, through the Priority-driven Collaborative Cancer Research Scheme.

Sandra is based at the University of Queensland.

What is oesophageal adenocarcinoma?

Oesophageal adenocarcinoma (also known as OAC) is a cancer with very few treatment options. The standard of care for oesophageal cancer is preoperative chemo/radiotherapy followed by surgery. However, 50-60% of patients don’t benefit from this and in fact, they end up at risk of developing severe side effects. 

Lately, immunotherapies have shown promising results but are still in development. Little is known about the underlying causes of different treatment responses, but it is hypothesised that they are genetically encoded in tumour cells.

The research

Dr Sandra and her team are looking at how tumour cell populations change over time and if the differences between patients can predict response to treatment.

Heterogeneity exists between patients (inter-patient heterogeneity), between tumours within the same patient (inter-tumour heterogeneity), and even the cell populations (clones) within a tumour show differences (intra-tumour heterogeneity). Subclonal cell populations have clinical relevance as drug-resistant clones develop within patients’ tumours which then initiate tumour spread and affect immune response. 

“My research uses genomics and bioinformatics approaches to determine genetic biomarkers to identify patients who will benefit from current therapies. We aim to understand and eventually resolve obstacles like intra-tumour heterogeneity to improve therapeutic outcomes and precision medicine for patients with oesophageal cancer.”

Why is funding cancer research so important?

This research could be life-changing for patients with OAC. Identifying differing treatments needed on a case-by-case basis will improve the outcome for all patients with oesophageal cancer. 

“The long-term goal of my research is the development of novel biomarkers to predict which patient will respond and benefit from a specific treatment, leading to a personalised and optimal cancer therapy.”

Funding early career researchers

Sandra shares her thoughts on the importance of Early Career Researcher grants:

“Being an early-career researcher means you’re only at the beginning of your career with often a limited number of publications (if any) after your PhD. Competing for funding with already established researchers is very challenging and the success rates are small. Cure Cancer grants are highly important in the current funding landscape in Australia.”

About Dr Sandra Brosda

Sandra is currently a bioinformatician at the University of Queensland Diamantina Institute. She was born in Germany and first visited Australia in 2010  where she fell in love with Australia’s nature and relaxed lifestyle. In 2015, Sandra had the opportunity to return to Australia to complete a postgraduate research project with the University of Queensland. Before she knew it she was pursuing a PhD in oesophageal cancer genetics.

In her spare time, she loves to play soccer for the University of Queensland FC team and volunteer as their women’s coordinator.

“Little is known about which patient will benefit from which treatment and my research is aiming to change that.”

Together, we can cure cancer.

Related Blog posts

In the media

Dr Kulasinghe named Researcher of the Year

Early-career researchers boosted in mission to beat cancer

Cure Cancer Opens Early-Career Research Grant Applications For 2023