Advancing Pediatric Cancer Monitoring Through NGS-Based Proteomics

What if a simple blood sample could tell us how patients might respond to immunotherapy?

Join us for this 30-minute multiomics coffee break and discover how researchers from The ACRF Spatial Immune Oncology Research (ASpIREe) and Child Cancer Liquid Biopsy Programs (CCLBP) at the Children’s Cancer Institute, Sydney utilized a multiomics approach to decode the immune landscape of pediatric cancers—without the need for invasive tumor biopsies.

Olink® Explore HT was used to profile the serum from 88 pediatric patients with both  central nervous system (CNS) and extracranial tumor types, alongside whole-genome and RNA sequencing data from the ZERO Childhood Cancer Program. This multiomics analysis allowed them to investigate potential tumor-specific plasma markers in blood. 

They identified distinct protein expression changes unique to brain tumors, neuroblastoma, and sarcomas, suggesting that tumor subtype-specific blood biomarkers can be detected even in a small cohort. 

By integrating Olink proteomics analysis with cellular immune profiling and multiomics data, this research sheds new light on how immune signals in the blood can mirror activity within the tumor immune microenvironment (TIME). These insights could revolutionize how we identify and monitor biomarkers, guide immunotherapy decisions, and ultimately personalize care for young cancer patients.

What You’ll Learn:

• How protein profiling offers a new, less invasive way to monitor and understand pediatric cancer
• Which protein signatures were linked to specific tumor types - including brain tumors, neuroblastoma, and sarcomas
• How circulating protein biomarkers can reflect tumor immune status, guiding more personalized immunotherapy strategies