
Dr Henry Hui
Improving survival in childhood leukaemia
Research Collaboration Award
$29,864.00
2022
The University of Western Australia, collaborating with Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
The Raine/BrightSpark Research Collaboration Award has enabled Dr Henry Hui to innovate a world-leading, WA-grown, cutting-edge diagnostic technology and has accelerated the capacity to advance the health outcomes of children with leukaemia. Specifically, this technology has helped to improve the diagnosis of children with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL), especially in those with the "Philadelphia-like” (“Ph-like”) subtype who have poor prognostic outcomes and survival.
Paediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia is the most common childhood cancer and the leading cause of death in Australia. The death rates can be 3-fold higher in other countries such as Malaysia. Most patients in the high-risk subgroup have one specific subtype called "Ph-like ALL", which is correlated to the highest rate of treatment failure and has a 50% death rate from recurrence. The genomic defects in Ph-like ALL are most commonly due to chromosomal aberrations involving the CRLF2 gene which lead to activated kinase signalling in leukaemic cells. Ph-like ALL patients generally respond to personalised therapies such as targeted kinase inhibitors and therefore early identification of these cases is crucial. However, diagnosis is generally difficult as current testing is complex, slow, and inaccurate, and in some countries such as Malaysia, not available at all. Dr Hui and collaborators wanted to address this key gap in clinical care by adapting their patented immuno-flow FISH cytogenomic methodology to assess Ph-like ALL in Australian and Malaysian patients.
This all-in-one technology enables high precision detection of Ph-like ALL genetic mutations by enabling the analysis and visualisation of many thousands of cancer cells with their biomarkers and chromosomes at the same time. Preliminary data shows this technology is unmatched by others as it exceeds current clinical testing capabilities in accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and speed. This world-first WA invention is now ready to be applied to patient cases, and in particular, children with high-risk Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia or poor prognostic features from Perth Children's Hospital and the University of Malaysia.
Dr Hui has mentioned that this research collaboration award was critical in initiating the collaboration between the University of Malaysia and the University of Western Australia. Thanks to the work of this project, Dr Hui has captivated new collaborations locally and internationally which have provided his team with more clinical samples, multidisciplinary information, world-class resources, and expertise which have assisted in the development of this technology.
This novel invention will refine diagnosis and assist with the ongoing surveillance of cancer cells that may be hidden at diagnosis or emerge after treatment which may mean life or death for patients. Importantly, this technology may even identify patient-specific biological differences, novel disease biomarkers and may allow for more targeted therapies to be developed which will ultimately provide better health outcomes for children impacted by Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia.
Dr Hui said: "This world-first diagnostic frontier has the potential to fulfil an unmet need in standard-of-care that informs health policy and clinical practice to improve the quality of life of patients and eradicate blood cancer deaths worldwide”.