Project description:Pancreatic cancer is a lethal disease. Chemoresistance is one of the characteristics of pancreatic cancer and leads to a poor prognosis. This study built an effective predictive model for personalized treatment and explored the molecular mechanism of chemoresistance. A four-gene signature, including serine peptidase inhibitor Kazal type 1 (SPINK1), anoctamin 1 (ANO1), desmoglein 3 (DSG3) and GTPase, IMAP family member 1 (GIMAP1) was identified and associated with prognosis and chemoresistance in the training group. An internal testing dataset and the external dataset, GSE57495, were used for validation and showed a good performance of the gene signature. The high-risk group was enriched with multiple oncological pathways related to immunosuppression and was correlated with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) expression, a target molecule of Erlotinib. In conclusion, this study identified a four-gene signature and established two nomograms for predicting prognosis and chemotherapy responses in patients with pancreatic cancer. The clinical value of the nomogram was evaluated by decision curve analysis (DCA). It showed that these may be helpful for clinical treatment decision-making and the discovery of the potential molecular mechanism and therapy targets for pancreatic cancer.
Project description:Currently, there are no effective biomarkers for ovarian cancer prognosis or prediction of therapeutic response. The objective of this study was to examine a panel of 10 serum biochemical parameters for their ability to predict response to chemotherapy, progression and survival of ovarian cancer patients. Sera from ovarian cancer patients were collected prior and during chemotherapy and were analysed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for CA125, kallikreins 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 and 11, B7-H4, regenerating protein IV and Spondin-2. The odds ratio and hazard ratio and their 95% confidence interval (95% CI) were calculated. Time-dependent receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curves were utilised to evaluate the prognostic performance of the biomarkers. The levels of several markers at baseline (c(0)), or after the first chemotherapy cycle (rc(1)), predicted chemotherapy response and overall or progression-free survival in univariate analysis. A multiparametric model (c(0) of CA125, KLK5, KLK7 and rc(1) of CA125) provided predictive accuracy with area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 0.82 (0.62 after correction for overfitting). Another marker combination (c(0) of KLK7, KLK10, B7-H4, Spondin-2) was useful in predicting short-term (1-year) survival with an AUC of 0.89 (0.74 after correction for overfitting). All markers examined, except KLK7 and regenerating protein IV, were powerful predictors of time to progression (TTP) among chemotherapy responders. Individual and panels of biomarkers from the kallikrein family (and other families) can predict response to chemotherapy, overall survival, short-term (1-year) survival, progression-free survival and TTP of ovarian cancer patients treated with chemotherapy.
Project description:Ferroptosis plays a role in tumorigenesis by affecting lipid peroxidation and metabolic pathways; however, its prognostic or therapeutic relevance in pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PAAD) remains poorly understood. In this study, we developed a prognostic ferroptosis-related gene (FRG)-based risk model using cohorts of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC), proposing plausible therapeutics. Differentially expressed FRGs between tumors from TCGA-PAAD and normal pancreatic tissues from Genotype-Tissue Expression were analyzed to construct a prognostic risk model using univariate and multivariate Cox regression and LASSO analyses. A model incorporating AURKA, CAV1, and PML gene expression effectively distinguished survival differences between high- and low-risk groups among TCGA-PAAD patients, with validation in two ICGC cohorts. The high-risk group was enriched in gene sets involving mTOR, MAPK, and E2F signaling. The immune and stromal cells infiltration score did not differ between the groups. Analysis of PRISM datasets using our risk model to classify pancreatic cell lines suggested the dasatinib's efficacy in the high-risk group, which was experimentally confirmed in four cell lines with a high- or low-risk signature. In conclusion, this study proposed a robust FRG-based prognostic model that may help stratify PAAD patients with poor prognoses and select potential therapeutic avenues.
Project description:Mitophagy is a conserved cellular process that plays a vital role in maintaining cellular homeostasis by selectively removing dysfunctional mitochondria. Notwithstanding that growing evidence suggests that mitophagy is implicated in pancreatic tumorigenesis, the effect of mitophagy-related genes on pancreatic cancer (PC) prognosis and therapeutic response remains largely unknown. In this study, we sought to construct a mitophagy-related gene signature and assessed its ability to predict the survival, immune activity, mutation status, and chemotherapy response of PC patients. During the screening process, we identified three mitophagy-related genes (PRKN, SRC, VDAC1) from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) cohort and a 3-gene signature was established. The prognostic model was validated using an International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) cohort and two Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) cohorts. According to the median risk score, PC patients were divided into high and low-risk groups, and the high-risk group correlated with worse survival in the four cohorts. The risk score was then identified as an independent prognostic predictor, and a predictive nomogram was constructed to guide clinical decision-making. Remarkably, enhanced immunosuppressive levels and higher mutation rates were observed in patients from the high-risk group, which may account for their poor survival. Furthermore, we found that high-risk patients were more sensitive to paclitaxel and erlotinib. In conclusion, a mitophagy-related gene signature is a novel prognostic model that can be used as a predictive indicator and allows prognostic stratification of PC patients.
Project description:Objective: Necroptosis represents a new target for cancer immunotherapy and is considered a form of cell death that overcomes apoptosis resistance and enhances tumor immunogenicity. Herein, we aimed to determine necroptosis subtypes and investigate the roles of necroptosis in pancreatic cancer therapy. Methods: Based on the expression of prognostic necroptosis genes in pancreatic cancer samples from TCGA and ICGC cohorts, a consensus clustering approach was implemented for robustly identifying necroptosis subtypes. Immunogenic features were evaluated according to immune cell infiltrations, immune checkpoints, HLA molecules, and cancer-immunity cycle. The sensitivity to chemotherapy agents was estimated using the pRRophetic package. A necroptosis-relevant risk model was developed with a multivariate Cox regression analysis. Results: Five necroptosis subtypes were determined for pancreatic cancer (C1∼C5) with diverse prognosis, immunogenic features, and chemosensitivity. In particular, C4 and C5 presented favorable prognosis and weakened immunogenicity; C2 had high immunogenicity; C1 had undesirable prognosis and high genetic mutations. C5 was the most sensitive to known chemotherapy agents (cisplatin, gemcitabine, docetaxel, and paclitaxel), while C4 displayed resistance to aforementioned agents. The necroptosis-relevant risk model could accurately predict prognosis, immunogenicity, and chemosensitivity. Conclusion: Our findings provided a conceptual framework for comprehending necroptosis in pancreatic cancer biology. Future work is required for evaluating its relevance in the design of combined therapeutic regimens and guiding the best choice for immuno- and chemotherapy.
Project description:Although extracellular vesicles (EVs) in body fluid have been considered to be ideal biomarkers for cancer diagnosis and prognosis, it is still difficult to distinguish EVs derived from tumor tissue and normal tissue. Therefore, the prognostic value of tumor-specific EVs was evaluated through related molecules in pancreatic tumor tissue. NA sequencing data of pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PAAD) were acquired from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC). EV-related genes in pancreatic cancer were obtained from exoRBase. Protein-protein interaction (PPI) network analysis was used to identify modules related to clinical stage. CIBERSORT was used to assess the abundance of immune and non-immune cells in the tumor microenvironment. A total of 12 PPI modules were identified, and the 3-PPI-MOD was identified based on the randomForest package. The genes of this model are involved in DNA damage and repair and cell membrane-related pathways. The independent external verification cohorts showed that the 3-PPI-MOD can significantly classify patient prognosis. Moreover, compared with the model constructed by pure gene expression, the 3-PPI-MOD showed better prognostic value. The expression of genes in the 3-PPI-MOD had a significant positive correlation with immune cells. Genes related to the hypoxia pathway were significantly enriched in the high-risk tumors predicted by the 3-PPI-MOD. External databases were used to verify the gene expression in the 3-PPI-MOD. The 3-PPI-MOD had satisfactory predictive performance and could be used as a prognostic predictive biomarker for pancreatic cancer.
Project description:A subset of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas (PDACs) is highly resistant to systemic chemotherapy, but no markers are available in clinical settings to identify this subset. We found that chemotherapy-resistant PDACs, but not chemotherapy-sensitive PDACs, express a glycan biomarker called sTRA. We confirmed the use of this marker to identify treatment-resistant PDAC in multiple systems: sets of 24 cell lines, 27 organoids, and isogenic cell lines; gene-expression signatures in primary tumors; tissue microarrays containing primary tumors; and blood plasma from cohorts of human subjects. These findings establish the use of tissue or plasma assays to identify the PDACs that are resistant to chemotherapy, which could improve the precision of systemic treatments and facilitate biomarker-guided trials targeting resistant PDAC.
Project description:PurposeA subset of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas (PDACs) is highly resistant to systemic chemotherapy, but no markers are available in clinical settings to identify this subset. We hypothesized that a glycan biomarker for PDACs called sialylated tumor-related antigen (sTRA) could be used for this purpose.Experimental designWe tested for differences between PDACs classified by glycan expression in multiple systems: sets of cell lines, organoids, and isogenic cell lines; primary tumors; and blood plasma from human subjects.ResultsThe sTRA-expressing models tended to have stem-like gene expression and the capacity for mesenchymal differentiation, in contrast to the nonexpressing models. The sTRA cell lines also had significantly increased resistance to seven different chemotherapeutics commonly used against pancreatic cancer. Patients with primary tumors that were positive for a gene expression classifier for sTRA received no statistically significant benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy, in contrast to those negative for the signature. In another cohort, based on direct measurements of sTRA in tissue microarrays, the patients who were high in sTRA again had no statistically significant benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy. Furthermore, a blood plasma test for the sTRA glycan identified the PDACs that showed rapid relapse following neoadjuvant chemotherapy.ConclusionsThis research demonstrates that a glycan biomarker could have value to detect chemotherapy-resistant PDAC in clinical settings. This capability could aid in the development of stratified treatment plans and facilitate biomarker-guided trials targeting resistant PDAC.
Project description:ER-negative breast cancer includes most aggressive subtypes of breast cancer such as triple negative (TN) breast cancer. Excluded from hormonal and targeted therapies effectively used for other subtypes of breast cancer, standard chemotherapy is one of the primary treatment options for these patients. However, as ER- patients have shown highly heterogeneous responses to different chemotherapies, it has been difficult to select most beneficial chemotherapy treatments for them. In this study, we have simultaneously developed single drug biomarker models for four standard chemotherapy agents: paclitaxel (T), 5-fluorouracil (F), doxorubicin (A) and cyclophosphamide (C) to predict responses and survival of ER- breast cancer patients treated with combination chemotherapies. We then flexibly combined these individual drug biomarkers for predicting patient outcomes of two independent cohorts of ER- breast cancer patients who were treated with different drug combinations of neoadjuvant chemotherapy. These individual and combined drug biomarker models significantly predicted chemotherapy response for 197 ER- patients in the Hatzis cohort (AUC = 0.637, P = 0.002) and 69 ER- patients in the Hess cohort (AUC = 0.635, P = 0.056). The prediction was also significant for the TN subgroup of both cohorts (AUC = 0.60, 0.72, P = 0.043, 0.009). In survival analysis, our predicted responder patients showed significantly improved survival with a >17 months longer median PFS than the predicted non-responder patients for both ER- and TN subgroups (log-rank test P-value = 0.018 and 0.044). This flexible prediction capability based on single drug biomarkers may allow us to even select new drug combinations most beneficial to individual patients with ER- breast cancer.
Project description:The concept of breast-conserving surgery is a remarkable achievement of breast cancer therapy. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy is being used increasingly to shrink the tumor prior to surgery. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy is reducing the tumor size to make the surgery with less damaging to surrounding tissue and downstage locally inoperable disease to operable. However, non-effective neoadjuvant chemotherapy could increase the risks of delaying surgery, develop unresectable disease and metastatic tumor spread. The biomarkers for predicting the neoadjuvant chemotherapy effect are scarce in breast cancer treatment. In this study, we identified that FZR1 can be a novel biomarker for breast cancer neoadjuvant chemotherapy according to clinical patient cohort evaluation and molecular mechanism investigation. Transcriptomic data analysis indicated that the expression of FZR1 is correlated with the effect of neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Mechanistically, we demonstrate that FZR1 is pivotal to the chemotherapy drugs induced apoptosis and cell cycle arrest. FZR1 is involved in the stability of p53 by impairing the phosphorylation at ser15 site. We demonstrate that the expression of FZR1 detected by quantification of IHC can be an effective predictor of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in animal experiment and clinical patient cohort. To obtain more benefit for breast cancer patient, we propose that the FZR1 IHC score using at the clinical to predict the effect of neoadjuvant chemotherapy.