Clinical utility of genomics in non-Hodgkin lymphoma

Background

Melbourne Genomics’ Clinical Flagships have been at the forefront of determining when genomic testing makes a demonstrable difference to the safety and quality of patient care.

Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) is one of 16 areas of health investigated by Melbourne Genomics. It is the most common form of blood cancer in Australia and the sixth most common cancer overall. About 90% of lymphoma is non-Hodgkin – the focus of this project.

Even with the best available treatment, up to half of patients with high-risk advanced NHL will die of the disease.

Advanced NHL is among the most diverse cancers: in terms of the number of different genomic variants present in one type of cancer and the number of contributory variants within an individual’s cancer.

Project description

The objective: to determine the feasibility of providing genomic testing to improve management of advanced NHL if and when a patient relapses.

The Advanced Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Flagship was led by Professor Stephen Opat (Monash Health) and Professor Miles Prince (Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre), with Dr Gareth Gregory (Monash Health) providing key coordination. Thirty health professionals were directly involved.

Activities, outcomes and lessons learnt

Findings from this project will be made available following publication of results.

Impact

The Flagship enabled one of the hospital sites to implement and develop professional capacity in interpreting WES for lymphoma.

This project facilitated development of critical infrastructure and expertise through shared knowledge and experience.

Clinical Flagship team