NSW Health and Medical Research

Blood ‘fingerprinting’ to detect and monitor glioblastoma

Chris O’Brien Lifehouse

Grant:
  • Early-Mid Career Researcher Grant
Chief Investigator/s:
  • Dr. Kimberly Alexander

What is the issue for NSW?

Glioblastoma, the most common primary brain cancer in adults, is almost always fatal. Patients undergo aggressive clinical interventions, including neurosurgery and chemoradiation. They are then monitored with frequent MRI scans for signs of recurrence. This requires travelling to metropolitan hospitals, which is challenging for patients living in remote/rural NSW communities.

Even with the best MRI technology and experienced doctors, glioblastoma recurrences are often confused with common treatment-related brain changes. This presents a substantial barrier to timely clinical decisions. Patients may continue an ineffective treatment, have an effective treatment stopped, or undergo unnecessary neurosurgery.

Finding new therapies is a research priority, but glioblastoma patients also need a sensitive, accurate test that can determine whether their tumour is responding to or resisting treatment. This is also crucial for assessing new drugs in clinical trials.

What does the research aim to do and how?

Dr Alexander’s team at the Chris O’Brien Lifehouse has developed a new strategy that uses AI and advanced molecular profiling of nanoparticles captured from the blood. They tested 100+ glioblastoma blood samples and found a ‘blood fingerprint’ that can detect a tumour recurrence with 93.4% accuracy.

This research aims to confirm this blood fingerprint using 386 blood samples and clinicopathologic data collected from a further 104 glioblastoma patients. Changes in blood fingerprints will also be mapped over the entire glioblastoma clinical course to see if this approach can support personalised treatment decisions to improve patient outcomes.