It is the ambition of the team formed by members of the Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI) and the Cancer Genome Project at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (WTSI) to unravel the genomic and phenotypic complexity of human cancers in order to identify optimal drug combinations for personalized cancer therapy. Our integrated approach will entail (i) deep sequencing of human tumours and cognate mouse tumours; (ii) drug screens in a 1000+ fully characterized tumour cell line panel; (iii) high-throughput in vitro and in vivo shRNA and cDNA drug resistance and enhancement screens; (iv) computational analysis of the acquired data, leading to significant response predictions; (v) rigorous validation of these predictions in genetically engineered mouse models and patient-derived xenografts. This integrated effort is expected to yield a number of combination therapies and companion-diagnostics biomarkers that will be further explored in our existing clinical trial networks.
It remains unknown if inherited germline mutations in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene increase the risk of breast and ovarian cancer by elevating mutation rate in mammary cells. Here we show, using a single-cell whole genome sequencing approach, that mammary luminal epithelial cells isolated from tissues obtained from preventive mastectomy surgeries in women with a pathogenic BRCA1/2 germline mutation, exhibit a statistically significant, increased mutation frequency as compared to age-matched controls without genetic risk of breast cancer.
APOLLO is a proteogenomic study seeking to describe the major genome, transcriptome, proteome and phosphoproteome alterations, subtypes, and molecular predictors of patient outcomes. This study includes 70 high grade serous ovarian carcinoma tissues from the Gynecologic Cancer Center of Excellence (https://medschool.usuhs.edu/gso/research/gyn-cancer-center-of-excellence). Bulk and laser microdissection enriched tumor tissues were profiled by whole genome sequencing, transcriptome sequencing, MS-based proteomics and reverse phase protein arrays. Clinical and sample data include survival times, patient features, and tumor characteristics.
The aim of the study was to identify mutations in key ovarian cancer genes (BRCA1, BRCA2,TP53, PTEN, ATM, ATR, NF1) in archival fresh-frozen paraffin embedded (FFPE) tumor tissue from platinum-resistant ovarian cancer patients enrolled in the phase I/II GANNET53 clinical trial. From the enrolled 133 patients, archival FFPE tissue was available and DNA was extracted thereof. The DNA samples passing quality control (n=118) were NGS sequenced using the SureSeq™ Ovarian Cancer Panel and the NGS Library Preparation kit (Oxford Gene Technology), which covers all exons of 7 key ovarian cancer genes for single nucleotide variants (SNV) and indels, and the Illumina MiSeq platform. For the paired-end runs, one Read 1 (R1) and one Read 2 (R2) FASTQ file were created for each sample. FASTQ files were compressed and created with the extension \.fastq.gz.
Predicting resistance to chemotherapy using chromosomal instability signatures Joe Sneath Thompson1,2,*, Laura Madrid2,*, Barbara Hernando1,*, Carolin M. Sauer3, Maria Vias3, Maria Escobar-Rey1,2, Wing-Kit Leung2,3, Diego Garcia-Lopez2, Jamie Huckstep3, Magdalena Sekowska3, Karen Hosking4,5, Mercedes Jimenez-Linan5,6, Marika A. V. Reinius3,5,6, Abhipsa Roy2, Omar Abdulle2, Justina Pangonyte3, Harry Dobson2, Amy Cullen2,3, Dilrini De Silva2, David Gómez-Sánchez1,7, Marina Torres1, Ángel Fernández-Sanromán1, Deborah Sanders3, Filipe Correia Martins3,5,6, Ionut-Gabriel Funingana3,4,5, Giovanni Codacci-Pisanelli3,4,8, Miguel Quintela-Fandino1, Florian Markowetz2,3,4, Jason Yip2, James D. Brenton2,3,4,5,6, Anna M. Piskorz#,2,3, Geoff Macintyre#,1,2 1 Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), Madrid, Spain 2 Tailor Bio Ltd, Cambridge, UK 3 Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK 4 Department of Oncology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK 5 Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Cambridge, UK 6 Cancer Research UK Major Centre - Cambridge, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK 7 H12O-CNIO Lung Cancer Clinical Research Unit, Health Research Institute Hospital 12 de Octubre (imas12), Madrid, Spain 8 University of Rome "la Sapienza", Rome, Italy
Tumor evolution is one of the major mechanisms responsible for acquiring therapy resistant and more aggressive cancer clones. Whether the tumor microenvironment through immune-mediated mechanisms might promote the development of more aggressive cancer types is crucial for the identification of additional therapeutical opportunities. Here, we identify a subset of tumor-associated neutrophils, defined as tumor-associated neutrophil precursors (PreNeu). These PreNeu are enriched in highly proliferative hormone-dependent breast cancers and impair DNA repair capacity
The molecular analysis of urine cell-free DNA (cfDNA) offers a non-invasive tool to advance bladder cancer (BC) management. Assessment of somatic copy number aberrations (SCNA) and DNA methylation, as singular or complementary analysis, have emerged as promising approaches for BC detection. Here, we developed an integrated analysis to assess both SCNA and targeted methylation changes from the same template molecules, named the iSECURE (integrated SEquencing-based Copy number and methylation analysis in URinE) method.
In this study, we aimed to understand how the 3D genome changes during breast cancer development and progression, in situ. Towards this goal, we collected cells from patient biopsies and performed Hi-C on four types of biopsies representing different stages of disease progression: healthy mammary tissue, primary breast tumours, liver metastasis and malignant pleural effusions. We survey the changes in the 3D genomes at the level of structural variation, compartments and TADs, as well as ERα associated distal interactions.
The British Translational Research Ovarian Cancer Collaborative (BriTROC), spanning more than 10 centres across UK, is a prospective observational project focused on relapsed high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC). The first study, as a part of the project, is the Fixative optimisation study, which analyses the utility for next-generation sequencing of UMFIX samples compared to NBF-fixed and fresh frozen samples. Various DNA and sequencing quality analyses were performed to compare fixation methods in bulk tumour and biopsy samples.
Glioblastoma (GBM) is the deadliest primary brain cancer in adults. Emerging innovative therapies hold promise for personalized cancer treatment. Improving therapeutic options depends on research relying on relevant preclinical models. In this line we have established in the setting of the GlioTeX project (GBM and experimental therapeutics), a GBM-patient derived cell line library (GBM-PDCL). Multi-OMIC approach was used to determine the molecular landscape of PDCL and the extent to which they represent GBM tumors.
