Professor Kiarash Khosrotehrani with his team
Princess Alexandra Hospital Dermatology researchers have been recognised for their extensive work to understand the formation of skin cancer and the design and execution of strategies to reduce the burden of the most common malignancy in mankind.
Professor Kiarash Khosrotehrani won the 2024 Research Translation Excellence Award for his findings into the common conditions, and the development of interventions that go beyond sun protection to more tangible benefits for patients.
He said two in three individuals experience the disease in their lifetime. Two per cent of Queensland’s population experience 20 basal or squamous cell carcinomas (BCC/SCC) every three years. These are grouped as keratinocyte carcinomas.
“Individual tumours are easily treated with surgical excision; however, new lesions can emerge in the same sun-damaged area resulting in keratinocyte carcinomas becoming a chronic disease,” Prof Khosrotehrani said.
“This is particularly prevalent among patients with a defective immune system such as organ transplant recipients who have a 200-fold increase of SCC risk and a 60-fold increase of BCC risk. They also have more aggressive cancers with increased mortality compared to the general population.”
His research team’s groundbreaking work in identifying key attributes of keratinocytes undergoing transformation towards cancer has now been applied in a clinical trial using an inhibitor (Sirolimus) applied to the skin to counteract the growth of the cells.
The pilot trial recruited 30 organ transplant recipients to receive Sirolimus on one forearm and placebo on the other forearm. After 12 weeks of treatment, a 30 per cent decrease of a pre-cancerous condition leading to SCC was observed.
Even more, a two year follow up showed a three-fold reduction in superficial skin cancers.
“It was a great pleasure to receive the Queensland Health Health Research Translation Award 2024 for our work spanning from the basic understanding of skin cancer formation to the design and execution of strategies to reduce the burden of these too common conditions,” Prof Khosrotehrani said.
“Our partners have been integral to this work including the Experimental Dermatology Group, the department of Dermatology at PA Hospital, and the Dermatology Research Centre at The University of Queensland Frazer Institute within the Translational Research Institute Australia.
“We look forward to even better health outcomes for patients who are at high risk of skin cancer,” he said.
Background:
The award was presented as part of the Queensland Health Research Excellence Showcase in May 2024 with Health Translation Queensland sponsoring the award.
These exciting findings prompting the funding of a phase III clinical trial in a multicentre study across Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne that is currently recruiting (The SIROSKIN trial, NCT05860881).