Oncogenic Signalling Group

Metastatic relapse continues to underpin high mortality rates for cancer patients as existing therapies are largely ineffective and palliative once relapse is detected. This highlights the need for treatments that block metastatic disease earlier on. Whilst significant efforts have been made to develop ‘anti-metastatic’ drugs that stop the spread of cancer cells, these therapies are unlikely to work in malignancies where metastasis has occurred before patients are diagnosed. Instead, our team are focused on identifying treatment strategies that stop the growth of tumour cells that have already spread throughout the body.

In close collaboration with the Network Biology laboratory, we have developed a number of experimental models to study metastatic disease progression in highly aggressive triple negative breast cancers (TNBC). In ongoing projects, our team is utilising these unique models to dissect the biology that underpins metastatic outgrowth and identify novel therapeutic vulnerabilities to treat metastatic TNBC. This work is complemented by cutting-edge phenotypic drug screening studies, which aim to translate these biological findings into clinically viable treatment strategies.

Expanding on our TNBC studies, we are now also assessing our novel therapies as treatments for high grade serous ovarian carcinomas and appendiceal cancers. In both cases, metastatic relapse underpins poor survival outcomes. As appendiceal cancers are extremely rare and there are limited resources to study these tumours, our team is collaborating with A/Prof Kate Mahon from the Chris O’Brien Lifehouse, to develop experimental models of appendiceal cancer for drug discovery studies.