Research round-up: Precision oncology

Nature ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 585 (7826) ◽  
pp. S2-S3
Author(s):  
Laura Vargas-Parada
Keyword(s):  
Precision Oncology

Avenues to Precision Oncology

2020 ◽  
pp. 36-45
Author(s):  
Alexander Meisel
Keyword(s):  
Precision Medicine ◽  
Trial Design ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Molecular Targets ◽  
Clinical Trial Design ◽  
Predictive Biomarkers ◽  
Precision Oncology ◽  
Companion Diagnostics ◽  
Bona Fide ◽  
The One

Until recently, the clinical management of cancer heavily relied on anatomical and histopathological criteria, with ad hoc guidelines directing the therapeutic choices in specific indications. In the last years, the development and therapeutic implementation of novel anticancer therapies significantly improved the clinical outcome of cancer patients. Nonetheless, such cutting-edge approaches revealed the limitation of the one-size-fits-all paradigm. The newly discovered molecular targets can be exploited either as bona fide targets for subsequent drug development, or as tools to precision medicine, in the form of prognostic and/or predictive biomarkers. This article provides an overview of some of the most recent advances in precision medicine in oncology, with a focus on novel tissue-agnostic anticancer therapies. The definition and implementation of biomarkers and companion diagnostics in clinical trials and clinical practice are also discussed, as well as the changing landscape in clinical trial design.

scholarly journals Best Paper Selection

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (01) ◽  
pp. 226-226
Keyword(s):  
Prostate Cancer ◽  
Knowledge Base ◽  
Prediction Models ◽  
Precision Oncology ◽  
Castration Resistant Prostate Cancer ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Castration Resistant

Chakravarty D, Gao J, Phillips SM, Kundra R, Zhang H, Wang J, Rudolph JE, Yaeger R, Soumerai T, Nissan MH, Chang MT, Chandarlapaty S, Traina TA, Paik PK, Ho AL, Hantash FM, Grupe A, Baxi SS, Callahan MK, Snyder A, Chi P, Danila D, Gounder M, Harding JJ, Hellmann MD, Iyer G, Janjigian Y, Kaley T, Levine DA, Lowery M, Omuro A, Postow MA, Rathkopf D, Shoushtari AN, Shukla N, Voss M, Paraiso E, Zehir A, Berger MF, Taylor BS, Saltz LB, Riely GJ, Ladanyi M, Hyman DM, Baselga J, Sabbatini P, Solit DB, Schultz N. OncoKB: a precision oncology knowledge base. JCO Precis Oncol 2017 Jul;2017 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/28890946/ Newton Y, Novak AM, Swatloski T, McColl DC, Chopra S, Graim K, Weinstein AS, Baertsch R, Salama SR, Ellrott K, Chopra M, Goldstein TC, Haussler D, Morozova O, Stuart JM. TumorMap: exploring the molecular similarities of cancer samples in an interactive portal. Cancer Res 2017 Nov 1;77(21):e111-e114 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/29092953/ Seyednasrollah F, Koestler DC, Wang T, Piccolo SR, Vega R, Greiner R, Fuchs C, Gofer E, Kumar L, Wolfinger RD, Winner KK, Bare C, Neto EC, Yu T, Shen L, Abdallah K, Norman T, Stolovitzky G, Soule HR, Sweeney CJ, Ryan CJ, Scher HI, Sartor O, Elo LL, Zhou FL, Guinney J, Costello JC, and Prostate Cancer DREAM Challenge Community. A DREAM challenge to build prediction models for short-term discontinuation of docetaxel in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. JCO Clin Cancer Inform 2017 Aug 4;(1):1-15 http://ascopubs.org/doi/abs/10.1200/CCI.17.00018

Germline EGFR variants are over-represented in adolescents and young adults (AYA) with adrenocortical carcinoma

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Akhavanfard ◽  
Lamis Yehia ◽  
Roshan Padmanabhan ◽  
Jordan P Reynolds ◽  
Ying Ni ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Adrenocortical Carcinoma ◽  
Kinase Inhibitor ◽  
Mapk Pathway ◽  
Adolescents And Young Adults ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Precision Oncology ◽  
Sequencing Data ◽  
Germline Variants ◽  
Mutant Cells

Abstract Adrenocortical Carcinoma (ACC) is a rare endocrine tumor with poor overall prognosis and 1.5-fold overrepresentation in females. In children, ACC is associated with inherited cancer syndromes with 50–80% of childhood-ACC associated with TP53 germline variants. ACC in adolescents and young adults (AYA) is rarely due to germline TP53, IGF2, PRKAR1A and MEN1 variants. We analyzed exome sequencing data from 21 children (<15y), 32 AYA (15-39y), and 60 adults (>39y) with ACC, and retained all pathogenic, likely pathogenic, and highly prioritized variants of uncertain significance. We engineered a stable lentiviral-mutant ACC cell line, harboring an EGFR variant (p.Asp1080Asn) from a 21-year-old female without germline-TP53-variant and with aggressive ACC. We found that 4.8% of the children (P = 0.004) and 6.2% of AYA (P < 0.0001), all-female participants, harbored germline EGFR variants, compared to only 0.3% of the control group. Expanding our analysis to the RTK-RAS-MAPK pathway, we found that the RTK genes have the highest number of highly prioritized germline variants in these individuals amongst all three arms of this pathway. We showed EGFR mutant cells migrate faster and are characterized by a stem-like phenotype compared to wild type cells. While EGFR inhibitors did not affect the stemness of mutant cells, Sunitinib, a multireceptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor, significantly reduced their stem-like behavior. Our data suggest that EGFR could be a novel underlying germline predisposition factor for ACC, especially in the Childhood-AYA (C-AYA) population. Further clinical validation can improve precision oncology management of this disease, which is known to have limited therapeutic options.

scholarly journals Molecular Subtypes and Precision Oncology in Intrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (13) ◽  
pp. 2803
Author(s):  
Carolin Czauderna ◽  
Martha M. Kirstein ◽  
Hauke C. Tews ◽  
Arndt Vogel ◽  
Jens U. Marquardt
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Care ◽  
Treatment Options ◽  
Treatment Strategies ◽  
Specific Treatment ◽  
Growth Factor Receptor ◽  
Treatment Modalities ◽  
Precision Oncology ◽  
Recurrence Rates ◽  
Isocitrate Dehydrogenase 1 ◽  
Liver Cancers

Cholangiocarcinomas (CCAs) are the second-most common primary liver cancers. CCAs represent a group of highly heterogeneous tumors classified based on anatomical localization into intra- (iCCA) and extrahepatic CCA (eCCA). In contrast to eCCA, the incidence of iCCA is increasing worldwide. Curative treatment strategies for all CCAs involve oncological resection followed by adjuvant chemotherapy in early stages, whereas chemotherapy is administered at advanced stages of disease. Due to late diagnosis, high recurrence rates, and limited treatment options, the prognosis of patients remains poor. Comprehensive molecular characterization has further revealed considerable heterogeneity and distinct prognostic and therapeutic traits for iCCA and eCCA, indicating that specific treatment modalities are required for different subclasses. Several druggable alterations and oncogenic drivers such as fibroblast growth factor receptor 2 gene fusions and hotspot mutations in isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 and 2 mutations have been identified. Specific inhibitors have demonstrated striking antitumor activity in affected subgroups of patients in phase II and III clinical trials. Thus, improved understanding of the molecular complexity has paved the way for precision oncological approaches. Here, we outline current advances in targeted treatments and immunotherapeutic approaches. In addition, we delineate future perspectives for different molecular subclasses that will improve the clinical care of iCCA patients.

scholarly journals DEEPGENTM—A Novel Variant Calling Assay for Low Frequency Variants

Genes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 507
Author(s):  
Bernd Timo Hermann ◽  
Sebastian Pfeil ◽  
Nicole Groenke ◽  
Samuel Schaible ◽  
Robert Kunze ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cancer Detection ◽  
Genetic Variants ◽  
Liquid Biopsy ◽  
Hot Spot ◽  
Treatment Success ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Variant Calling ◽  
Subsequent Treatment ◽  
Precision Oncology ◽  
Orthogonal Comparison

Detection of genetic variants in clinically relevant genomic hot-spot regions has become a promising application of next-generation sequencing technology in precision oncology. Effective personalized diagnostics requires the detection of variants with often very low frequencies. This can be achieved by targeted, short-read sequencing that provides high sequencing depths. However, rare genetic variants can contain crucial information for early cancer detection and subsequent treatment success, an inevitable level of background noise usually limits the accuracy of low frequency variant calling assays. To address this challenge, we developed DEEPGENTM, a variant calling assay intended for the detection of low frequency variants within liquid biopsy samples. We processed reference samples with validated mutations of known frequencies (0%–0.5%) to determine DEEPGENTM’s performance and minimal input requirements. Our findings confirm DEEPGENTM’s effectiveness in discriminating between signal and noise down to 0.09% variant allele frequency and an LOD(90) at 0.18%. A superior sensitivity was also confirmed by orthogonal comparison to a commercially available liquid biopsy-based assay for cancer detection.

scholarly journals The next horizon in precision oncology: Proteogenomics to inform cancer diagnosis and treatment

Cell ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 184 (7) ◽  
pp. 1661-1670
Author(s):  
Henry Rodriguez ◽  
Jean Claude Zenklusen ◽  
Louis M. Staudt ◽  
James H. Doroshow ◽  
Douglas R. Lowy
Keyword(s):  
Cancer Diagnosis ◽  
Diagnosis And Treatment ◽  
Precision Oncology

scholarly journals Virus-Driven Carcinogenesis

Cancers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 2625
Author(s):  
Yuichiro Hatano ◽  
Takayasu Ideta ◽  
Akihiro Hirata ◽  
Kayoko Hatano ◽  
Hiroyuki Tomita ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Insertional Mutagenesis ◽  
Human Herpesvirus ◽  
Kaposi Sarcoma ◽  
Malignant Cell ◽  
Precision Oncology ◽  
Oncogenic Viruses ◽  
Barr Virus ◽  
Human T Cell ◽  
Tumor Viruses ◽  
Tumor Virus

Cancer arises from the accumulation of genetic and epigenetic alterations. Even in the era of precision oncology, carcinogens contributing to neoplastic process are still an important focus of research. Comprehensive genomic analyses have revealed various combinations of base substitutions, referred to as the mutational signatures, in cancer. Each mutational signature is believed to arise from specific DNA damage and repair processes, including carcinogens. However, as a type of carcinogen, tumor viruses increase the cancer risk by alternative mechanisms, including insertional mutagenesis, viral oncogenes, and immunosuppression. In this review, we summarize virus-driven carcinogenesis to provide a framework for the control of malignant cell proliferation. We first provide a brief overview of oncogenic viruses and describe their implication in virus-related tumors. Next, we describe tumor viruses (HPV, Human papilloma virus; HBV, Hepatitis B virus; HCV, Hepatitis C virus; EBV, Epstein–Barr virus; Kaposi sarcoma herpesvirus; MCV, Merkel cell polyoma virus; HTLV-1, Human T-cell lymphotropic virus, type-1) and tumor virus-related cancers. Lastly, we introduce emerging tumor virus candidates, human cytomegalovirus (CMV), human herpesvirus-6 (HHV-6) and adeno-associated virus-2 (AAV-2). We expect this review to be a hub in a complex network of data for virus-associated carcinogenesis.

scholarly journals DIPG-40. TARGETING MASTER REGULATOR DEPENDENCIES IN DIFFUSE INTRINSIC PONTINE GLIOMA (DIPG)

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (Supplement_3) ◽  
pp. iii294-iii295
Author(s):  
Jovana Pavisic ◽  
Chankrit Sethi ◽  
Chris Jones ◽  
Stergios Zacharoulis ◽  
Andrea Califano
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Expression Profiles ◽  
Treatment Options ◽  
Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma ◽  
Low Grade ◽  
Precision Oncology ◽  
Pontine Glioma ◽  
Convection Enhanced Delivery ◽  
Master Regulator

Abstract Diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) remains a fatal disease with no effective drugs to date. Mutation-based precision oncology approaches are limited by lack of targetable mutations and genetic heterogeneity. We leveraged systems biology methodologies to discover common targetable disease drivers—master regulator proteins (MRs)—in DIPG to expand treatment options. Using the metaVIPER algorithm, we interrogated an integrated low grade glioma and GBM gene regulatory network with 31 DIPG-gene expression signatures to identify tumor-specific MRs by differential expression of their transcriptional targets. Unsupervised clustering identified MR signatures of upregulated activity in RRM2/TOP2A in 13 patients, CD3D in 5 patients, and MMP7, TACSTD2, RAC2 and SLC15A1/SLC34A2 in individual patients, all of which can be targeted. Notably, intratumoral administration of etoposide by convection enhanced delivery was effective in murine proneural gliomas in which TOP2 was identified as a MR while RRM2—targetable by drugs such as cladribine—has been shown to be a positive regulator of glioma progression whose knock-down inhibits tumor growth. We also prioritized drugs by their ability to reverse MR-activity signatures using a large drug-perturbation database. Patients clustered by predicted drug sensitivities with distinct groups of tumors predicted to respond to proteasome inhibitors, Thiotepa or Volasertib all of which have early evidence in treating gliomas. We will refine this analysis in a multi-institutional study of >100 patient gene expression profiles to define MR signatures driving known biological/molecular disease subtypes, use DIPG cell lines recapitulating common MR architectures to optimize therapy prioritization, and validate our findings in vivo.

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