Project description:Anal squamous cell carcinoma (ASCC) is an infrequent tumor. Since 70s, treatment of stages II-III consists on a combination of 5-fluorouracil (5FU), mitomycin C (MMC), and radiotherapy. The aim of this study is the identification of biomarkers that allow personalized treatment and improvement of therapeutic outcomes. Forty-six tumor paraffin samples from ASCC patients were analyzed by whole-exome sequencing. Single nucleotide polymorphisms and copy number variants (CNVs) were identified and their relation to disease-free survival (DFS) was studied using BRB Array Tool and Kaplan-Meier analyses. Obtained findings were validated in an independent retrospective cohort of 101 ASCC patients with stages I-III from eleven hospitals within the Multidisciplinary Spanish Digestive Cancer Group (GEMCAD) using qPCR Copy Number Assays. GEMCAD validation cohort was also analyzed using mass spectrometry proteomics to assess the biological features of these tumors.
Project description:The study involves whole exome sequencing of 20 primary tumors obtained from lung squamous carcinoma patients of Indian origin. With this, we aim to describe the mutational profile of this specific subset of lung cancer patients. This knowledge will further allow us to gain an insight into potentially actionable genomic alterations prevalent in Indian lung squamous carcinoma.
Project description:Etiologically linked to HPV infection, malignancies of the anal canal have substantially increased in incidence over the last 20 years. Although most anal squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) respond well to chemoradiotherapy, for undetermined reasons, a subgroup of patients experience a poor outcome. Despite cumulative efforts for discovering independent predictors for overall survival, both nodal status and tumor size are still the only reliable factors predicting patient outcome. In the present study, we correlated both proteomic signatures and clinicopathological features of neoplastic lesions arising from two distinct portions of the anal canal: the lower part (squamous zone) and the more proximal anal transitional zone. Although microdissected cancer cells appeared indistinguishable by morphology (squamous phenotype), unsupervised clustering analysis of the whole proteome significantly highlighted the heterogeneity that exists within anal canal tumors. More importantly, two region-specific subtypes of SCC were revealed. The expression profile (sensitivity/specificity) of several selected biomarkers (keratin filaments) further confirmed the subclassification of anal (pre)cancers based on their cellular origin. Less commonly detected compared to their counterparts located in the squamous mucosa, SCC originating in the transitional zone displayed more frequently a poor or basaloid differentiation and were significantly correlated with reduced disease-free and overall survivals. Taken together, we present for the first time direct evidence that anal canal SCC comprises two distinct entities with different cells of origin, proteomic signatures and survival rates. This study forms the basis for a novel dualistic classification of anal carcinoma with implications for management, outcome expectations and possibly therapeutic approaches.
Project description:131 patient-derived xenograft models were generated for non-small cell lung carcinoma and were profiled at the genome, transcriptome and proteome level by analysis of gene copy number variation, whole exome sequencing, DNA methylation, transcriptome, proteome and phospho(Tyr)-proteome. At the proteome level, the human tumor and murine stroma were discernible. Tumor proteome profiling resolved the known major histological subtypes and revealed 3 proteome subtypes (proteotypes) among adenocarcinoma and 2 in squamous cell carcinoma that were associated with distinct protein-phosphotyrosine signatures and patient survival. Stromal proteomes were similar between histological subtypes, but two adenocarcinoma proteotypes had distinct stromal proteomes. Proteotypes comprise tumor and stromal signatures of targetable biological pathways suggesting that patient stratification by proteome profiling may be an actionable approach to precisely diagnose and treat cancer.
Project description:This is a Phase 1b/2, open-label multicenter study evaluating NKTR-255 as a monotherapy and together with cetuximab in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), colorectal carcinoma (CRC), cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC), anal cell carcinoma (ASCC) and cervical cancer. The recommended phase 2 dose of NKTR-255, determined in the dose escalation phase (Phase 1b), will be used to treat patients in Phase 2 of this study.