Melanoma Research

Melanoma is the most fatal skin cancer worldwide and late detection can lead to death. But ECU researchers have found a way to detect spread of the aggressive disease at early stages – a discovery that has the potential to save thousands of lives.

Each year about 8,000 Australians are diagnosed with melanoma – more than 1,000 of those will die.

The cancer develops from melanocytes - skin cells that produce melanin, or skin pigment or melanoblasts, stem cells in the skin.

When we are exposed to the sun the melanocytes produce more melanin, causing the skin to tan, freckle or develop moles.

However, when we over-expose ourselves to the sun’s ultra violet rays, DNA damage to the melanocyte can cause it to change the normal pattern of gene expression and become cancerous.

The unusual gene expression can, in turn, cause the cell to proliferate and migrate. 

If cutaneous melanoma is detected early, the survival rate is almost 100 per cent.

However, the highly aggressive cancer is not always easy to detect and, if it isn’t removed, can rapidly spread to other parts of the body.

The primary tumour on the skin will not, in itself, cause death.

It is the spread of the melanoma cells via the blood stream to other organs and tissues and the formation of a secondary tumour, which is generally the cause of death.

If the melanoma is more than three millimetres deep, the chance of a victim’s survival rate can decrease to less than 60 per cent. The deeper the tumour, the more likely it is to spread, by shedding cells into the lymphatic and blood circulatory systems.

However, research by Dr Melanie Ziman from Edith Cowan University may hold the key to concise and early detection of disease spread, saving thousands of lives a year.

The Senior Lecturer from the School of Exercise, Biomedical and Health Science has identified a genetic marker that can be detected in the blood of patients with melanoma at very early stages.

Working with postgraduate students Sandra Medic and Judith Blake for nearly three years on the project, Dr Ziman believes this is a major step forward in the treatment of melanoma cancer.

“These exciting results will form the basis of further research aimed at detecting and understanding melanoma and metastasis,” she said.

“If the cells are detected in the blood stream early it will alert the medical specialists so that they are extra vigilant when treating the patient, and in specific cases will ensure entry into specific treatment and chemotherapy programs.”

Dr Ziman explained that it is the aberrant gene expression patterns in migrating cells that the ECU team are able to detect.

This is possible because migrating cells enter the blood stream and can be detected in a simple test using a small sample of peripheral blood.

“Initially a few papers suggested that these markers might play a role so we had a look at the blood from several patients with melanoma and sure enough the markers were there,” Dr Ziman said.

"The markers are not found in the blood of normal, healthy volunteers with no melanoma. But they are sometimes found in the blood of patients who had melanomas removed many years ago,” she said.

“At this stage we are not sure whether this implies tumour spread or evasion of the immune system.”

Dr Ziman said the next step in her research is to increase the number of cases they test to ensure the validity of the test.

“We want to find more markers to strengthen our findings and improve the accuracy of the test,” she said.

“We also wish to conduct more research into characterising the cells that are highly metastatic and find out the mechanisms that make the cells so dangerous.

“If we can detect these cells with a high degree of accuracy then we can target these cells with specific therapies.”

It is without doubt that conducting quality research enables early detection of melanoma.

Dr Ziman says that while her research is ground-breaking, to continue it further she needs support.

“Performing this research in Western Australia where we have one of the highest mortality rates would be of enormous benefit to the local community who are specifically involved in the research,” she said.

“We need assistance to buy efficient and reliable equipment to continue our work.

“We’d also like to set up scholarship and fellowship funds to support excellent students and researchers keen to join our ever expanding team of dedicated scientists and of course take us one step closer to ultimately benefiting all melanoma sufferers and indeed all skin cancer sufferers throughout Australia.”

All funds raised go directly to the Melanoma Research project supported by the ECU Foundation.

If you would like to know about this project, please contact Dr Melanie Ziman,Senior Lecturer, Postgraduate Coordinator Human Biology and Paramedical Science.