Dr Elizabeth Ahern

Research Fellow, Medical Oncology, Cancer Care Services, RBWH

Dr Ahern is the Research Fellow in Medical Oncology at Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital (RBWH) in 2019/2020 with a strong interest in preclinical and translational research in the topic of immune-oncology (the interaction between immune system and cancer) and immunotherapies. She is a specialist Medical Oncologist. She is a PhD candidate in the Immunology in Infection and Cancer laboratory, Queensland Institute of Medical Research (QIMRB)/University of Queensland (UQ) with the topic Targeting receptor activator of NF-kB pathways in combination immunotherapy and will submit her thesis in 2019. Through research at QIMRB she has been central in creating several new collaborations in translational immune-oncology research between RBWH and QIMRB involving pre-clinical researchers and clinicians from the departments of Cancer Care Services, Surgery, and Pathology. She graduated from UQ medical school with 1^st class honours in 2006 and previously graduated with 1^st class honours in chemical engineering in 2001 (having won the Hawken Prize for School of Engineering, Physical Sciences and Architecture (UQ) 2001). She has presented research at several national and international conferences. She has been a participant in the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Program for Excellence in Science (2016-2019). She is a member of several other groups including Medical Oncology Group of Australia (MOGA), American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), Australian Lung Cancer Trials Group (ALTG), and Australian Gastro-Intestinal Trials Group (AGITG).  

Dr Ahern is an early career researcher. She was a recipient of Australian Postgraduate Award recipient 2015-18 (University of Queensland). She is currently an investigator (co-PI) on four current translational grants to the value of >AUD$3.5M, focusing on immuno-oncology in lung and colorectal cancer. Together with colleagues she has developed key novel pre-clinical research and observational research which formed the basis for an investigator-sponsored study (Hughes CI-A) using denosumab (anti-RANKL) in combination with nivolumab in the neoadjuvant treatment of resectable lung cancer. This trial has thus far attracted approx. AUD$3M funding through an educational grant from Amgen, Inc and Cancer Council Queensland. The trial will build capacity for ongoing early-phase translational immune-oncology research, and is involving scientific collaborators in the region and internationally together with local clinicians across Brisbane. The trial is sponsored by Metro North Hospital and Health Service (RBWH). Dr Ahern is a co-PI on several other ongoing/developing translational research projects between RBWH and QIMRB including:

• Immune biomarker assessment in oral mucosal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC)
• Multiplex immunofluorescence assessment of melanoma biopsies and response to immunotherapy
• Expression of novel immune markers in mucosal head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) specimens
• A pilot study of CXCR4 PET for nodal staging of resectable mucosal head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), including correlation with histopathology, immunohistochemistry, sputum and circulating tumour cells

Dr Ahern’s other ongoing collaborations include observational research assessing real-world outcomes in patients with lung cancer and bone metastases (team members from Amgen, Inc. (CA, USA) and Flatiron Health (NY, USA)) and research collaborating with Nutrition and Dietetics researchers (UQ and RBWH) and head and neck cancer multidisciplinary team members (RBWH) in a project assessing relationships between sarcopenia and outcome in head and neck cancer