Identification of Novel Epigenetic Modifiers of Metastasis Progression in Ewing Sarcoma
Abstract
Ewing Sarcoma is an aggressive cancer of bone and soft tissue affecting children and young adults. This proposal directly addresses the Fiscal Year 2017 Peer Reviewed Cancer Research Program Topic Area of “cancer in children, adolescents and young adults” since Ewing Sarcoma specifically affects this age group. Patients with Ewing Sarcoma are treated with intensive chemotherapy. This helps some, but not all, patients with early disease, works poorly in those with advanced disease, including those in whom disease has spread away from the initial tumor site (a process called metastasis), and has many long-term side effects. Searching for new and better therapies for Ewing Sarcoma, our laboratory, as well as those of others, has found that cellular factors that turn on cancer-promoting genes and turn off cancer-inhibitory genes play an important role in the development and aggressive properties of Ewing Sarcoma, including metastasis. Many such factors can be targeted with drugs. However, which of these cellular factors are critical to Ewing Sarcoma metastasis is at present largely unknown. The purpose of the research proposed here is to use recently developed approaches in our laboratory and those of others to identify such factors critical to Ewing Sarcoma metastasis and to begin to understand how they act. It is expected that discovery and initial understanding of these factors will pave the way for better understanding of Ewing Sarcoma metastasis – currently a significant knowledge deficit in the field – and, in future work, to the identification of new treatment approaches to inhibiting this process. The research proposed is basic in nature. However, since many of the cellular factors expected to be identified by our studies can be inhibited with drugs, our findings have the potential for translation in the near to intermediate future. The research proposed here has direct relevance to members of the military, as Ewing Sarcoma affects young adults of both genders, an age group heavily represented in the Armed Forces, and also impacts children of active and past members of the military.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Oct 29, 2018
- Source ID
- W81XWH1810172
Entities
People
- Pavel Jedlicka
Organizations
- United States Army
- University of Colorado Denver