Understanding Tumor Dormancy as a Means of Secondary Prevention
Abstract
The purpose of this collaborative project was to establish a molecular definition of the dormant state of a cancer cell with the goal of understanding how this dormancy is broken, ultimately leading to recurrence in a patient that was stably in remission. Once our understanding of this is more complete, it is hoped that we can devise strategies for secondary prevention. We encountered considerable delays in this project mainly due to our move from CSHL to CRUK-CI which negated the use of our original strategy for the identification of candidate genes for dormancy. This led us to pursue an alternative strategy for the identification of dormant tumor cells and the characterization of their microenvironment: imaging mass cytometry or IMC. Over the past year, we have constructed antibody panels, which can be read by IMC, to identify and characterize the status of breast tumor cells and one to characterize immune infiltrates. This approach could be used as an adjunct to STPT, LCM, and RNAseq. We have also aimed to identify candidate dormancy regulators and find ways to manipulate these for patient benefit. Additionally, we have identified asparagine bioavailability as a major regulator of EMT, which could be manipulated to influence response to therapy, affecting the potential pool of residual/dormant disease, and its recognition by the innate and adaptive immune system.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 14, 2019
- Accession Number
- AD1097392
Entities
People
- Gregory Hannon
Organizations
- Cancer Research UK