Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Extrachromosomal Dna (Ecdna): An Origin Of Tumor Heterogeneity, Genomic Remodeling, And Drug Resistance., Lauren T Pecorino, Roel G W Verhaak, Anton Henssen, Paul S Mischel

Faculty Research 2022

The genome of cancer cells contains circular extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA) elements not found in normal cells. Analysis of clinical samples reveal they are common in most cancers and their presence indicates poor prognosis. They often contain enhancers and driver oncogenes that are highly expressed. The circular ecDNA topology leads to an open chromatin conformation and generates new gene regulatory interactions, including with distal enhancers. The absence of centromeres leads to random distribution of ecDNAs during cell division and genes encoded on them are transmitted in a non-mendelian manner. ecDNA can integrate into and exit from chromosomal DNA. The numbers of …

Advancing Clinical And Translational Research In Germ Cell Tumours (Gct): Recommendations From The Malignant Germ Cell International Consortium., Adriana Fonseca, João Lobo, Florette K Hazard, Joanna J Gell, Peter K Nicholls, Robert S Weiss, Lindsay Klosterkemper, Samuel L Volchenboum, James C Nicholson, A Lindsay Frazier, James F Amatruda, Aditya Bagrodia, Michelle Lockley, Matthew J Murray

Faculty Research 2022

Germ cell tumours (GCTs) are a heterogeneous group of rare neoplasms that present in different anatomical sites and across a wide spectrum of patient ages from birth through to adulthood. Once these strata are applied, cohort numbers become modest, hindering inferences regarding management and therapeutic advances. Moreover, patients with GCTs are treated by different medical professionals including paediatric oncologists, neuro-oncologists, medical oncologists, neurosurgeons, gynaecological oncologists, surgeons, and urologists. Silos of care have thus formed, further hampering knowledge dissemination between specialists. Dedicated biobank specimen collection is therefore critical to foster continuous growth in our understanding of similarities and differences by age, …

Functional Genomics Of Complex Cancer Genomes., Francesca Menghi, Edison Liu

Faculty Research 2022

Cancer functional genomics is the study of how genetic, epigenetic, and transcriptional alterations affect cancer phenotypes, such as growth and therapeutic response. Here, we comment on how, taking advantage of next generation sequencing, functional genomics, often combined with systems biology approaches, has revealed novel cancer vulnerabilities beyond the original paradigm of one gene-one phenotype.

Transcriptional Profiling Of Macrophages In Situ In Metastatic Melanoma Reveals Localization-Dependent Phenotypes And Function., Jan Martinek, Jianan Lin, Kyung In Kim, Victor G Wang, Te-Chia Wu, Michael Chiorazzi, Hannah Boruchov, Ananya Gulati, Shamreethaa Seeniraj, Lili Sun, Florentina Marches, Paul Robson, Anthony Rongvaux, Richard A Flavell, Joshy George, Jeffrey Chuang, Jacques Banchereau, Karolina Palucka

Faculty Research 2022

Modulation of immune function at the tumor site could improve patient outcomes. Here, we analyze patient samples of metastatic melanoma, a tumor responsive to T cell-based therapies, and find that tumor-infiltrating T cells are primarily juxtaposed to CD14⁺ monocytes/macrophages rather than melanoma cells. Using immunofluorescence-guided laser capture microdissection, we analyze transcriptomes of CD3⁺ T cells, CD14 ⁺ monocytes/macrophages, and melanoma cells in non-dissociated tissue. Stromal CD14⁺ cells display a specific transcriptional signature distinct from CD14⁺ cells within tumor nests. This signature contains LY75, a gene linked with antigen capture and regulation of tolerance and immunity in …

Epistemic Beliefs: Relationship To Future Expectancies And Quality Of Life In Cancer Patients., Paul K J Han, Elizabeth Scharnetzki, Eric Anderson, John Dipalazzo, Tania D Strout, Caitlin Gutheil, F Lee Lucas, Emily A Edelman, Jens Rueter

Faculty Research 2022

CONTEXT: Expectations about the future (future expectancies) are important determinants of psychological well-being among cancer patients, but the strategies patients use to maintain positive and cope with negative expectancies are incompletely understood.

OBJECTIVES: To obtain preliminary evidence on the potential role of one strategy for managing future expectancies: the adoption of "epistemic beliefs" in fundamental limits to medical knowledge.

METHODS: A sample of 1307 primarily advanced-stage cancer patients participating in a genomic tumor testing study in community oncology practices completed measures of epistemic beliefs, positive future expectancies, and mental and physical health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Descriptive and linear regression …

The Europdx Data Portal: An Open Platform For Patient-Derived Cancer Xenograft Data Sharing And Visualization., Zdenka Dudová, Nathalie Conte, Jeremy Mason, Dalibor Stuchlík, Radim Peša, Csaba Halmagyi, Zinaida Perova, Abayomi Mosaku, Ross Thorne, Alex Follette, Ľuboslav Pivarč, Radim Šašinka, Muhammad Usman, Steven Neuhauser, Dale A. Begley, Debra M Krupke, Massimiliano Frassà, Alessandro Fiori, Riccardo Corsi, Luca Vezzadini, Claudio Isella, Andrea Bertotti, Carol J Bult, Helen Parkinson, Enzo Medico, Terrence Meehan, Aleš Křenek

Faculty Research 2022

BACKGROUND: Patient-derived xenografts (PDX) mice models play an important role in preclinical trials and personalized medicine. Sharing data on the models is highly valuable for numerous reasons - ethical, economical, research cross validation etc. The EurOPDX Consortium was established 8 years ago to share such information and avoid duplicating efforts in developing new PDX mice models and unify approaches to support preclinical research. EurOPDX Data Portal is the unified data sharing platform adopted by the Consortium.

MAIN BODY: In this paper we describe the main features of the EurOPDX Data Portal ( https://dataportal.europdx.eu/ ), its architecture and possible utilization by …