Breakthrough paves way for predicting melanoma patient response to treatment

A major step forward has been made in predicting how well melanoma patients would respond to treatment, thanks to world-leading University of Otago – Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka research.

More than 7,000 melanomas are diagnosed each year in Aotearoa New Zealand, and nearly 300 people annually lose their lives to the disease.

Immunotherapy treatment, particularly Keytruda (anti-PD1 therapy), is the main frontline medicine used to treat skin cancer. However, only about 30-40 per cent of melanoma patients respond to Keytruda effectively, underscoring the need for biomarkers to predict treatment success.

New research, led by Professor Mike Eccles from the Department of Pathology, has identified key epigenetic differences – specifically in DNA methylation and gene expression – that correlate significantly with melanoma patient responses to Keytruda treatment.

Published in the prestigious international journal Cancer Letters, the significant findings have the potential to enable doctors to determine which patients can be successfully treated with the drug.

“This breakthrough offers the potential for more precise and effective melanoma treatment, which would enable clinicians to tailor therapeutic strategies based on each patient’s individual genomic profiles,” Professor Eccles says.

“Biomarkers are urgently needed to help treat melanoma patients – the potential to predict personalised treatment strategies is a major step forward in improving patient outcomes, both across Aotearoa and globally.”

This research formed the core of lead author Dr Mehbuba Hossain’s PhD research. Following completion of her PhD, Dr Hossain continued this groundbreaking work through a postdoctoral fellowship, which she undertook in Professor Eccles’ laboratory.

The project was jointly funded by the Health Research Council of New Zealand, the Maurice Wilkins Centre for Molecular Biodiscovery, the Maurice and Phyllis Paykel Trust, a University of Otago Doctoral Scholarship, and the NZ Institute for Cancer Research Trust.