Congratulations to Dr Carolyn Grove, WA Senior Lecturer and Clinical & Laboratory Haematologist, and Dr Xuan Tan,  WA Haematology Research Fellow, who have been awarded grant funding by WA Health’s Research Translational Project scheme to conduct a Research project “Next Generation Sequencing in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia and Acute Myeloid Leukaemia; A Health economic analysis”

Next generation sequencing (NGS) enables researchers to analyse genetics/DNA at a never-before seen level.

Dr Grove & Dr Tan’s project aims to analyse patients with newly diagnosed Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia and Acute Myeloid Leukaemia, to identify those patients who carry a genetic mutation; non-deletional TP53 mutation. NGS will be carried out on patients prior to treatment, to asses risk factors and aid treatment decisions (as patients with this particular genetic mutation often don’t do well with standard chemo-immunotherapy). The intended outcome of this analysis is to help form a business case to include next generation sequencing in haematological malignancies to assist with improved prognostication and improving treatment selection, in particular avoiding futile treatment which carries significant side effects for patients