Australian Researcher Advances Personalised Immunotherapy with Melanoma Prediction Tool and 600-Patient Cohort
核心洞察
Associate Professor Ines Pires da Silva and her team have expanded one of the world's largest melanoma (搜索) immunotherapy (搜索) research cohorts to more than 600 patients, with paired pre- and post-treatment tumour samples.
A new online clinical tool launching this month will predict an individual patient's risk of melanoma (搜索) recurrence following surgery, using clinical features to generate personalised risk estimates.
The research program focuses on identifying biomarkers that predict immunotherapy (搜索) response and resistance, with discoveries that could influence treatment across multiple tumour types beyond melanoma (搜索).
Associate Professor Ines Pires da Silva, an oncologist at the Melanoma Institute Australia and the University of Sydney, is advancing a research program that could reshape how clinicians approach immunotherapy (搜索) for melanoma (搜索) and, ultimately, other cancers. Her team has expanded one of the world's largest melanoma immunotherapy research cohorts to more than 600 patients and is preparing to launch a new clinical tool designed to predict an individual patient's risk of cancer recurrence after treatment.
"The prize was a little bit of a beginning," Assoc Prof Pires da Silva said, reflecting on her recognition as one of Australia's leading women in science just over a year ago. "It felt like the beginning of something even bigger."
Addressing a Fundamental Challenge in Immunotherapy (搜索)
Immunotherapy (搜索), which harnesses the body's own immune system to fight cancer, has revolutionised treatment for melanoma (搜索) and an increasing number of other cancers. Yet many patients either do not respond to treatment or eventually develop resistance. Assoc Prof Pires da Silva's ambitious research program is aimed squarely at this challenge: understanding why immunotherapy transforms outcomes for some patients but fails others.
Her work focuses on identifying biomarkers that can predict whether a patient will respond to a treatment before therapy begins, while also estimating who is most at risk of serious immune-related side effects.
"We need to have a feature or a characteristic or a model that will tell us, 'Okay, this melanoma (搜索) will respond to a specific treatment but this other melanoma is resistant ... but might respond to treatment B,'" she said. "On top of that, it's important to put into the equation the side effects."
An Unprecedented Research Cohort
The project is built around one of the world's most detailed collections of melanoma (搜索) samples, housed at the Melanoma Institute Australia. A distinguishing feature of this resource is the availability of paired tumour samples collected both before and after treatment.
"The beauty of this cohort is that we have samples from the tumour before treatment and after treatment," Assoc Prof Pires da Silva said. "That puts us in a very, very good position to really understand the effect of treatment in patients that respond and patients that do not."
The study has grown rapidly from a cohort of just over 200 patients to more than 600, presenting what the team describes as an unprecedented opportunity to identify why some tumours resist treatment while others disappear.
Launching a Clinical Prediction Tool
A paper accepted for publication this month will launch an online prediction tool that clinicians can use to estimate an individual patient's likelihood of cancer recurrence following surgery.
"We just input the clinical features that are needed and the tool gives us the likelihood of recurrence for that individual patient," Assoc Prof Pires da Silva explained.
Implications Beyond Melanoma (搜索)
While the research is centred on melanoma (搜索), its implications stretch well beyond a single tumour type. The team is investigating the biological mechanisms that allow cancers to resist immunotherapy (搜索) — discoveries that could ultimately influence treatment across multiple tumour types.
"If we are able to find other ways to overcome resistance to immunotherapy (搜索), that can be applied to any cancer," Assoc Prof Pires da Silva said.
Growing International Recognition
Over the past year, Assoc Prof Pires da Silva has chaired an educational session at the American Society of Clinical Oncology's annual meeting in Chicago, joined committees for the European Society for Medical Oncology, and accepted speaking invitations in Europe, the United States and Asia.
"It's been a very, very important year for me and for our group," she said.
The team has published almost 10 scientific papers in the past year, and Assoc Prof Pires da Silva anticipates further momentum. "I have been telling my team 2026 and 2027 will be big years ... because we have several publications — big publications and very important ones — that are coming out," she said.
Recognition through awards also carries practical significance, helping to attract funding for the costly work of conducting experiments, publishing results, and presenting discoveries at international conferences.