Dr Sandra Brosda
Research Fellow & Research Fellow
Frazer Institute
Researcher biography
Dr Sandra Brosda is a Research Fellow within the Surgical Oncology group led by Professor Andrew Barbour.
Dr Brosda was awarded a PhD in bioinformatics and cancer genetics from the University of Queensland in November 2020. Her research focuses on biomarker discovery and intra-tumour heterogeneity and tumour evolution in oesophageal adenocarcinoma (OAC). In 2021, Dr Brosda was awarded a Cure Cancer Australia PdCCRS grant and an MSH project grant to further investigate tumour evolution to improve precision medicine in OAC.
She has been involved in research projects covering genetics, epigenetics, spatial transcriptomics, radiomics, ctDNA and quality of life assessments in the context of cancer. Overall, her research applies bioinformatics tools and approaches to cancer genomics to improve precision medicine and health outcomes for patients with melanoma, oesophago-gastric cancer and pancreatic cancer.
Journal Articles
Gunawardana, Jay, Law, Soi C., Sabdia, Muhammed B., Fennell, Éanna, Hennessy, Aoife, Leahy, Ciara I., Murray, Paul G., Bednarska, Karolina, Brosda, Sandra, Trotman, Judith, Berkahn, Leanne, Zaharia, Andreea, Birch, Simone, Burgess, Melinda, Talaulikar, Dipti, Lee, Justina N., Jude, Emily, Hawkes, Eliza A., Jain, Sanjiv, Nath, Karthik, Snell, Cameron, Swain, Fiona, Tobin, Joshua W. D., Keane, Colm, Shanavas, Mohamed, Blyth, Emily, Steidl, Christian, Savage, Kerry, Farinha, Pedro ... Gandhi, Maher K. (2024). Intra‐tumoral and peripheral blood TIGIT and PD‐1 as immune biomarkers in nodular lymphocyte predominant Hodgkin lymphoma. American Journal of Hematology, 99 (11), 2096-2107. doi: 10.1002/ajh.27459
Brosda, Sandra, Aoude, Lauren G., Bonazzi, Vanessa F., Patel, Kalpana, Lonie, James M., Belle, Clemence J., Newell, Felicity, Koufariotis, Lambros T., Addala, Venkateswar, Naeini, Marjan M., Simes, John, Walpole, Euan T., Mai, Gang T., Watson, David I., Karapetis, Chris S., Gebski, Val, Barnes, Elizabeth H., Oostendorp, Martijn, Wilson, Kate, Ackland, Stephen P., Shannon, Jenny, Marx, Gavin, Burge, Matthew, Finch, Robert, Thomas, Janine, Varma, Suresh, Nott, Louise, Pearson, John V., Krause, Lutz ... Barbour, Andrew P. (2024). Spatial intra-tumour heterogeneity and treatment-induced genomic evolution in oesophageal adenocarcinoma: implications for prognosis and therapy. Genome Medicine, 16 (1) 90, 90. doi: 10.1186/s13073-024-01362-z
Belle, Clemence J., Lonie, James M., Brosda, Sandra and Barbour, Andrew P. (2023). Tumour microenvironment influences response to treatment in oesophageal adenocarcinoma. Frontiers in Immunology, 14 1330635, 1-8. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1330635
Lonie, James M., Brosda, Sandra, Bonazzi, Vanessa F., Aoude, Lauren G., Patel, Kalpana, Brown, Ian, Sharma, Sowmya, Lampe, Guy, Addala, Venkateswar, Koufariotis, Lambros T., Wood, Scott, Waddell, Nicola, Dolcetti, Riccardo and Barbour, Andrew P. (2023). The oesophageal adenocarcinoma tumour immune microenvironment dictates outcomes with different modalities of neoadjuvant therapy – results from the AGITG DOCTOR trial and the cancer evolution biobank. Frontiers in Immunology, 14 1220129, 1-15. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1220129
Aoude, Lauren G., Brosda, Sandra, Ng, Jessica, Lonie, James M., Belle, Clemence J., Patel, Kalpana, Koufariotis, Lambros T., Wood, Scott, Atkinson, Victoria, Smithers, B. Mark, Pearson, John V., Waddell, Nicola, Barbour, Andrew P. and Bonazzi, Vanessa F. (2023). ctDNA: a promising biomarker for predicting recurrence in BRAF-negative melanoma patients. Journal of Molecular Diagnostics, 25 (10), 771-781. doi: 10.1016/j.jmoldx.2023.06.014
Bonazzi, Vanessa F., Aoude, Lauren G., Brosda, Sandra, Bradford, Julia J., Lonie, James M., Loffler, Kelly A., Gartside, Michael G., Patel, Kalpana, Mukhopadhyay, Pamela, Keane, Colm, Gebski, Val, Kench, James G., Goldstein, David, Waddell, Nicola, Barbour, Andrew P. and the Australasian Gastro‐Intestinal Trials Group (AGITG) GAP investigators (2023). C‐reactive protein is a prognostic biomarker in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma patients. Asia-Pacific Journal of Clinical Oncology, 21 (1), 77-86. doi: 10.1111/ajco.13993
M. Naeini, Marjan, Newell, Felicity, Aoude, Lauren G., Bonazzi, Vanessa F., Patel, Kalpana, Lampe, Guy, Koufariotis, Lambros T., Lakis, Vanessa, Addala, Venkateswar, Kondrashova, Olga, Johnston, Rebecca L., Sharma, Sowmya, Brosda, Sandra, Holmes, Oliver, Leonard, Conrad, Wood, Scott, Xu, Qinying, Thomas, Janine, Walpole, Euan, Tao Mai, G., Ackland, Stephen P., Martin, Jarad, Burge, Matthew, Finch, Robert, Karapetis, Christos S., Shannon, Jenny, Nott, Louise, Bohmer, Robert, Wilson, Kate ... Waddell, Nicola (2023). Multi-omic features of oesophageal adenocarcinoma in patients treated with preoperative neoadjuvant therapy. Nature Communications, 14 (1) 3155, 3155. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-38891-x
Molendijk, Jeffrey, Kolka, Cathryn M., Cairns, Henry, Brosda, Sandra, Mohamed, Ahmed, Shah, Alok K., Brown, Ian, Hodson, Mark P., Hennessy, Thomas, Liu, Guanghao, Stoll, Thomas, Richards, Renee S., Gartside, Michael, Patel, Kalpana, Clemons, Nicholas J., Phillips, Wayne A., Barbour, Andrew, Westerhuis, Johan A. and Hill, Michelle M. (2022). Elevation of fatty acid desaturase 2 in esophageal adenocarcinoma increases polyunsaturated lipids and may exacerbate bile acid‐induced DNA damage. Clinical and Translational Medicine, 12 (5) e810, 1-19. doi: 10.1002/ctm2.810
Bonazzi, V. F., Aoude, L. G., Brosda, S., Lonie, J. M., Patel, K., Bradford, J. J., Koufariotis, L. T., Wood, S., Smithers, B. Mark, Waddell, N. and Barbour, A. P. (2022). ctDNA as a biomarker of progression in oesophageal adenocarcinoma. ESMO Open, 7 (3) 100452, 100452. doi: 10.1016/j.esmoop.2022.100452
Kolka, Cathryn M., Webster, Julie, Lepletier, Ailin, Winterford, Clay, Brown, Ian, Richards, Renee S., Zelek, Wioleta M., Cao, Yilang, Khamis, Ramlah, Shanmugasundaram, Karthik B., Wuethrich, Alain, Trau, Matt, Brosda, Sandra, Barbour, Andrew, Shah, Alok K., Eslick, Guy D., Clemons, Nicholas J., Morgan, B. Paul and Hill, Michelle M. (2022). C5b-9 membrane attack complex formation and extracellular vesicle shedding in Barrett’s esophagus and esophageal adenocarcinoma. Frontiers in Immunology, 13 842023. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.842023
Aoude, Lauren G., Wong, Bernadette, Bonazzi, Vanessa F, Brosda, Sandra, Walters, Shaun B., Koufariotis, Lambros T., Naeini, Marjan M., Pearson, John V, Oey, Harald, Patel, Kalpana, Bradford, Julia J., Bloxham, Conor J, Atkinson, Victoria, Law, Phillip, Strutton, Geoffrey, Bayley, Gerard, Yang, Samuel, Smithers, B. Mark, Waddell, Nicola, Miles, Kenneth and Barbour, Andrew P. (2021). Radiomics biomarkers correlate with CD8 expression and predict immune signatures in melanoma patients. Molecular Cancer Research, 19 (6) molcanres.1038.2020, 950-956. doi: 10.1158/1541-7786.mcr-20-1038
Gandhi, Maher K., Hoang, Thanh, Law, Soi C., Brosda, Sandra, O'Rourke, Kacey, Tobin, Joshua W. D., Vari, Frank, Murigneux, Valentine, Fink, J. Lynn, Gunawardana, Jay, Gould, Clare M., Oey, Harald, Bednarska, Karolina, Delecluse, Susanne, Trappe, Ralf Ulrich, de Long, Lilia Merida, Sabdia, Muhammed Bilal, Bhagat, Govind, Hapgood, Greg, Blyth, Emily, Clancy, Leighton E., Wight, Joel, Hawkes, Eliza A., Rimsza, Lisa M., Maguire, Alanna, Bojarczuk, Kamil, Chapuy, Bjoern and Keane, Colm (2021). EBV-associated primary CNS lymphoma occurring after immunosuppression is a distinct immunobiological entity. Blood, 137 (11), 1468-1477. doi: 10.1182/blood.2020008520
Veenstra, M. M. K., Smithers, B. M., Visser, E., Edholm, D., Brosda, S., Thomas, J. M., Gotley, D. C., Thomson, I. G., Wijnhoven, B. P. L. and Barbour, A. P. (2021). Complications and survival after hybrid and fully minimally invasive oesophagectomy. BJS Open, 5 (1) zraa033, 1-7. doi: 10.1093/bjsopen/zraa033
Aoude, Lauren G., Bonazzi, Vanessa F., Brosda, Sandra, Patel, Kalpana, Koufariotis, Lambros T., Oey, Harald, Nones, Katia, Wood, Scott, Pearson, John V., Lonie, James M., Arneil, Melissa, Atkinson, Victoria, Smithers, B. Mark, Waddell, Nicola and Barbour, Andrew P. (2020). Pathogenic germline variants are associated with poor survival in stage III/IV melanoma patients. Scientific Reports, 10 (1) 17687, 17687. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-74956-3
Blunk, Sebastian, Hoffer, Jeroen, Brosda, Sandra, de Heer, Martine I., Sturrock, Craig J. and Mooney, Sacha J. (2020). Impact of fruit orientation and pelleting material on water uptake and germination performance in artificial substrate for sugar beet. PLoS ONE, 15 (5) e0232875, e0232875. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0232875
van Hootegem, S. J. M., Smithers, B. M., Gotley, D. C., Brosda, S., Thomson, I. G., Thomas, J. M., Gartside, M. and Barbour, A. P. (2019). Baseline neutrophil–lymphocyte ratio holds no prognostic value for esophageal and junctional adenocarcinoma in patients treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Diseases of the Esophagus, 33 (6) doz082. doi: 10.1093/dote/doz082
van Hootegem, Sander J. M., Smithers, B. Mark, Gotley, David C., Brosda, Sandra, Thomson, Iain G., Thomas, Janine M., Gartside, Michael, van Lanschot, Jan J. B., Lagarde, Sjoerd M., Wijnhoven, Bas P. L. and Barbour, Andrew P. (2019). The impact of signet ring cell differentiation on outcome in patients with esophageal and gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma. Annals of Surgical Oncology, 26 (8), 2375-2384. doi: 10.1245/s10434-019-07322-x
Newell, Felicity, Patel, Kalpana, Gartside, Michael, Krause, Lutz, Brosda, Sandra, Aoude, Lauren G., Loffler, Kelly A., Bonazzi, Vanessa F., Patch, Ann-Marie, Kazakoff, Stephen H., Holmes, Oliver, Xu, Qinying, Wood, Scott, Leonard, Conrad, Lampe, Guy, Lord, Reginald V., Whiteman, David C., Pearson, John V., Nones, Katia, Waddell, Nicola and Barbour, Andrew P. (2019). Complex structural rearrangements are present in high-grade dysplastic Barrett's oesophagus samples. BMC Medical Genomics, 12 (1) 31, 31. doi: 10.1186/s12920-019-0476-9
Krause, Lutz, Nones, Katia , Loffler, Kelly A., Nancarrow, Derek, Oey, Harald , Tang, Yue Hang, Wayte, Nicola J., Patch, Ann Marie, Patel, Kalpana , Brosda, Sandra, Manning, Suzanne, Lampe, Guy, Clouston, Andrew, Thomas, Janine, Stoye, Jens, Hussey, Damian J., Watson, David I., Lord, Reginald V., Phillips, Wayne A., Gotley, David, Smithers, B. Mark, Whiteman, David C., Hayward, Nicholas K., Grimmond, Sean M., Waddell, Nicola and Barbour, Andrew P. (2016). Identification of the CIMP-like subtype and aberrant methylation of members of the chromosomal segregation and spindle assembly pathways in esophageal adenocarcinoma. Carcinogenesis, 37 (4), 356-365. doi: 10.1093/carcin/bgw018
Conference Papers
Belle, Clemence, Brosda, Sandra, Bonazzi, Vanessa, Kao, Yung-Ching, Brown, Ian, Aoude, Lauren, Stark, Mitchell, Patel, Kalpana, AGITG AGITG DOCTOR Investigators, Atkinson, Victoria and Barbour, Andrew (2025). Spatial transcriptomics profiling of the tumour microenvironment of esophageal adenocarcinoma. 21st ISDE World Congress for Esophageal Diseases, Brisbane, QLD Australia, 18-20 September 2025. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/dote/doaf061.357
Lonie, James, Brosda, Sandra, Addala, Venkateswar, Bonazzi, Vanessa, Aoude, Lauren, Zeng, Bijun, Waddell, Nicola, Dolcetti, Riccardo and Barbour, Andrew (2025). Development of novel immunotherapy-based therapies in oesophageal adenocarcinoma by harnessing tumour neoantigens. 21st ISDE World Congress for Esophageal Diseases, Brisbane, QLD Australia, 18-20 September 2025. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/dote/doaf061.314
Aoude, Lauren G., Brosda, Sandra, Wong, Ho Yi, Koufariotis, Lambros, Pearson, John V., Waddell, Nicola and Barbour, Andrew P. (2025). Identifying genetic drivers of oesophageal adenocarcinoma. 21st ISDE World Congress for Esophageal Diseases, Brisbane, QLD Australia, 18-20 September 2025. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/dote/doaf061.354
Belle, Clemence J., Brosda, Sandra, Bonazzi, Vanessa F., Bulteau, Victor, Stuart, Thomas, Xiong, Zherui, Lambie, Duncan, Johansson, Peter A., Aoude, Lauren G., Patel, Kalpana, Stehbens, Samantha J., Stark, Mitchell S., Haass, Nikolas K., Xu, Wen, Pinkham, Mark B., Foote, Matthew C., Olson, Sarah, Atkinson, Victoria, Kulasinghe, Arutha, Nguyen, Quan H. and Barbour, Andrew (2025). Unravelling melanoma brain metastasis tumor microenvironment characteristics using spatial transcriptomics. AACR Annual Meeting 2025, Chicago, IL United States, 25-30 April 2025. Philadelphia, PA United States: American Association for Cancer Research. doi: 10.1158/1538-7445.am2025-5076
Vashistha, Rajat, Moradi, Hamed, Brosda, Sandra, Aoude, Lauren, Vegh, Viktor and Barbour, Andrew (2024). Unsupervised clustering of PET/CT imaging features in stage III/IV melanoma. Annual Meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI), Toronto, ON, Canada, 8-11 June 2024. Reston, VA, United States: Society of Nuclear Medicine.
Gunawardana, Jay, Law, Soi C., Sabdia, Muhammed B., Bednarska, Karolina, Brosda, Sandra, Zaharia, Andreea, Tsang, Hennes, de Long, Lilia M., Burgess, Melinda, Talaulikar, Dipti, Lee, Justina N., Jude, Emily, Hawkes, Eliza A., Jain, Sanjiv, Nath, Karthik, Gould, Clare, Swain, Fiona, Tobin, Joshua W. D., Keane, Colm, Birch, Simone, Shanavas, Mohamed, Snell, Cameron and Gandhi, Maher K. (2022). Abstract A17: the immune checkpoints TIGIT and PD-1 are markedly upregulated in NLPHL compared to classical Hodgkin Lymphoma. Third AACR International Meeting: Advances in Malignant Lymphoma: Maximizing the Basic-Translational Interface for Clinical Application, 23-25 June 2022, Boston, MA USA. Philadelphia, PA USA: American Association for Cancer Research. doi: 10.1158/2643-3249.lymphoma22-a17
Aoude, L.G., Bonazzi, V.F., Brosda, S., Wong, B., Moradi, H., Lonie, J., Bradford, J., Bloxham, C., Atkinson, V.G., Law, P., Lampe, G., Smithers, M., Waddell, N., Vegh, V., Miles, K. and Barbour, A.P. (2022). Radiomics biomarkers are associated with survival in patients with oesophageal adenocarcinoma. ESMO Congress 2022, Singapore, 9 - 13 September 2022. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier. doi: 10.1016/j.annonc.2022.07.1357
Sharma, Sowmya, Naeini, Marjan, Aoude, Lauren G., Bonazzi, Vanessa F., Gartside, Michael G., Loffler, Kelly A., Patel, Kalpana, Newell, Felicity, Lampe, Guy, Brosda, Sandra, Thomas, Janine, Smithers, Mark, Simes, John, Watson, David I., Pearson, John, Barbour, Andrew and Waddell, Nic (2022). Classification of esophageal adenocarcinoma into subgroups that are associated with patient survival using RNA-seq and immunohistochemistry. Annual Meeting of the American-Society-of-Clinical-Oncology (ASCO), Electr Network, Jun 03-07, 2022. PHILADELPHIA: LIPPINCOTT WILLIAMS & WILKINS.
Gunawardana, Jay, Sabdia, Muhammed B., Bednarska, Karolina, Law, Soi C., Brosda, Sandra, Tsang, Hennes, De Long, Lilia Merida, Zaharia, Andreea, Lee, Justina, Jude, Emily, Hawkes, Eliza, Nath, Karthik, Gould, Clare, Burgess, Melinda Lea, Swain, Fiona, Tobin, Joshua W. D., Keane, Colm, Birch, Simone, Talaulikar, Dipti, Jain, Sanjiv, Shanavas, Mohamed, Snell, Cameron and Gandhi, Maher (2021). The NLPHL Tumor Microenvironment Is Markedly Enriched in the Tigit and PD-1 Signalling Axes Compared to Classical Hodgkin Lymphoma. 63rd Annual Meeting and Exposition of the American-Society-of-Hematology (ASH), Atlanta Ga, Dec 11-14, 2021. AMSTERDAM: ELSEVIER. doi: 10.1182/blood-2021-145840
Barbour, A. P., Brosda, S., Wijnhoven, B., van Hootgem, S., Lanschot, J. J. B., Barbour, S., Lagarde, S., Krause, L., Pryor, D., Thomas, J., Walpole, E. T., van der Gaast, A. and Smithers, M. (2018). Neoadjuvant therapy for esophageal adenocarcinoma: a propensity score-matched comparison of paclitaxel and carboplatin chemoradiotherapy with cisplatin and 5-fluoruracil-based chemo- or chemoradiotherapy. 43rd ESMO Congress (ESMO), Munich, Germany, 19-23 October 2018. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/annonc/mdy282.015
Barbour, Andrew P., McCormack, Orla M. , Baker, Peter J., Hirst, Jodi, Krause, Lutz, Brosda, Sandra, Thomas, Janine M., Blazeby, Jane M., Thomson, Iain G., Gotley, David C. and Smithers, Bernard M. (2017). Long-term health-related quality of life following esophagectomy: A nonrandomized comparison of thoracoscopically assisted and open surgery. Philadelphia, PA United States: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. doi: 10.1097/SLA.0000000000001899
Thesis
Brosda, Sandra (2020). Spatial and temporal tumour evolution and genetic biomarker discovery for personalised treatment in oesophageal adenocarcinoma. PhD Thesis, Medicine Faculty, The University of Queensland. doi: 10.14264/89e3f4f