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Newly identified biomarker predicts which tumours will be most deadly and likely to recur.
Posted On: March 27, 2017
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Epithelial ovarian cancer is responsible for over 100,000 deaths worldwide each year, the fifth leading cause of cancer-related death in women.
It’s all in your genes they say, which often holds true when it comes to the initiation and progression of cancer. That’s because genetic changes underlie the transformation of a normal cell into a cancer cell.
The upside to this is that the development and growth of some tumours are driven by abnormal genes—genes that, in some cases, can be targeted for therapy. Unfortunately, other types of cancer have an abundance of abnormal genes, with no single mutation to target for therapy.
An example of this hard to target cancer is high-grade serous carcinoma (HGSC), the most common and lethal subtype of epithelial ovarian cancer. Approximately 70% of patients with HGSC will die within 5 years of diagnosis.
A recent study to address the difficulty in developing genetically targeted treatments for HGSC was led by PM Cancer Centre Senior Scientist Robert Rottapel. The approach that Dr. Rottapel and his team took was to apply various advanced screening methods to sort through the abnormal genes present in HGSC and to identify the best therapeutic targets.
The team identified several potential genes, but one in particular—CD151—stood out as being particularly important to HGSC cell survival, and was also expressed in other cancer types. In particular, the team found that CD151 can be used as a biomarker: high levels indicate a more aggressive form of the disease. They were able to confirm this by analysing hundreds of patient samples from the Canadian Ovarian Experimental Unified Resource cohort, which revealed that high levels of the CD151 marker led to reduced chances of survival.
The CD151 gene produces a protein that exists on the surface of the tumour cells. While future work is required to explore whether a new treatment could be developed to target CD151, cell-surface proteins are attractive options for further study because they are accessible to therapeutic antibodies.
The research was supported by the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, Ovarian Cancer Canada, the Canadian Ovarian Cancer Research Consortium’s biobank funded by the Terry Fox Research Institute, and The Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation.
Medrano M, Communal L, Brown KR, Iwanicki M, Normand J, Paterson J, Sircoulomb F, Krzyzanowski P, Novak M, Doodnauth SA, Suarez Saiz F, Cullis J, Al-awar R, Neel BG, McPherson J, Drapkin R, Ailles L, Mes-Massons A-M, Rottapel R. Interrogation of Functional Cell-Surface Markers Identifies CD151 Dependency in High-Grade Serous Ovarian Cancer. Cell Rep. 2017 Mar 7.
The upside to this is that the development and growth of some tumours are driven by abnormal genes—genes that, in some cases, can be targeted for therapy. Unfortunately, other types of cancer have an abundance of abnormal genes, with no single mutation to target for therapy.
An example of this hard to target cancer is high-grade serous carcinoma (HGSC), the most common and lethal subtype of epithelial ovarian cancer. Approximately 70% of patients with HGSC will die within 5 years of diagnosis.
A recent study to address the difficulty in developing genetically targeted treatments for HGSC was led by PM Cancer Centre Senior Scientist Robert Rottapel. The approach that Dr. Rottapel and his team took was to apply various advanced screening methods to sort through the abnormal genes present in HGSC and to identify the best therapeutic targets.
The team identified several potential genes, but one in particular—CD151—stood out as being particularly important to HGSC cell survival, and was also expressed in other cancer types. In particular, the team found that CD151 can be used as a biomarker: high levels indicate a more aggressive form of the disease. They were able to confirm this by analysing hundreds of patient samples from the Canadian Ovarian Experimental Unified Resource cohort, which revealed that high levels of the CD151 marker led to reduced chances of survival.
The CD151 gene produces a protein that exists on the surface of the tumour cells. While future work is required to explore whether a new treatment could be developed to target CD151, cell-surface proteins are attractive options for further study because they are accessible to therapeutic antibodies.
The research was supported by the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, Ovarian Cancer Canada, the Canadian Ovarian Cancer Research Consortium’s biobank funded by the Terry Fox Research Institute, and The Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation.
Medrano M, Communal L, Brown KR, Iwanicki M, Normand J, Paterson J, Sircoulomb F, Krzyzanowski P, Novak M, Doodnauth SA, Suarez Saiz F, Cullis J, Al-awar R, Neel BG, McPherson J, Drapkin R, Ailles L, Mes-Massons A-M, Rottapel R. Interrogation of Functional Cell-Surface Markers Identifies CD151 Dependency in High-Grade Serous Ovarian Cancer. Cell Rep. 2017 Mar 7.