ECU's world-leading research on melanoma, the deadliest type of skin cancer.
Dr Zaenker was recently invited to be the expert keynote presenter in the prestigious Nature Portfolio webcast, where she presented her research on exploring the growing potential of autoantibodies as cancer biomarkers.
The event was hosted by global biotech company CDI Labs, a next-generation proteomics company. The invitation highlights ECU's leadership in cancer research and the impact of its ground-breaking work on a global audience.
Dr Zaenker, a Vice Chancellor's Research Fellow in ECU's School of Medical and Health Sciences and Lead of the OncoAutoimmunity Group within the Centre for Precision Health, is at the forefront of research into blood tests that examine the body's immune response to detect and monitor melanoma.
"The link between autoimmunity (the body's immune response against its own proteins) and cancer has been known for decades but we are now able to measure antibody responses to over 85 percent of all human proteins to understand specifically which responses are indicative of cancer detection, progression and treatment responses," Dr Zaenker said.
"Importantly, advanced stage melanoma patients undergoing life-saving immunotherapy often suffer autoimmune side effects that can be severe and result in hospitalisation and the need to discontinue the cancer treatment.
"Measuring autoantibodies in patient blood before the treatment commences may be predictive of severe toxicities, as we have seen in our preliminary data, and this knowledge could assist oncologists in providing the best possible personalised patient care."
"I envision that the use of blood tests measuring autoantibodies perhaps combined with other blood-based biomarkers in addition to standard clinical practice, will assist in melanoma detection, prognosis and prediction of immunotherapy response and side effects in the future," Dr Zaenker concludes.
