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R.M. Moresco



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    MINI 14 - Pre-Clinical Therapy (ID 119)

    • Event: WCLC 2015
    • Type: Mini Oral
    • Track: Biology, Pathology, and Molecular Testing
    • Presentations: 1
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      MINI14.11 - Establishment of a Lung Cancer Patient-Derived Xenografts Panel (ID 2607)

      10:45 - 12:15  |  Author(s): R.M. Moresco

      • Abstract
      • Presentation
      • Slides

      Background:
      Studies based on cell lines were found to be poor predictors of clinical effects and therefore in many cases translation of the results into the clinics failed. A major determinant for the poor performance of cell lines is the observation that cell lines do not reflect the whole complexity and heterogeneity of primary tumors. A growing body of work suggests that Patient-Derived Xenografts (PDX) represent a more informative cancer model, providing a faithful representation of the patient’s original tumor.

      Methods:
      PDX were obtained by direct implants of small tumor fragments (30mm[3]) in previously anesthetized SCID mice, and were subsequently passaged as tissue explants. PDX metabolic in vivo imaging was performed using weekly [18F]FDG-PET and coronal and 3D-reconstruction at different days. Analysis of mutations and copy number alterations of PDX and human constitutive and tumoural DNA was performed by SALSA MLPA® probe mix X050-A1 Lung Cancer (MRC Holland).

      Results:
      Tumor samples from 95 lung cancer patients (66 AC, 16 SCC and 13 other lung cancer histotypes (OL)) have been implanted in the flanks of SCID mice. Overall, 36 samples (37,9%) successfully grafted and were propagated for at least 3 passages in immunocompromised mice. Take rate was 34,8 % (23/66) in AC, 43,8% (7/16) in SCC and 46.1% (6/13) in OL (2 large cell carcinomas, 1 sarcomatoid carcinoma and 3 small cell carcinomas). A detailed immunohistochemical analysis of 27 PDX, at different passage in mice, confirmed that tumor histology, expression of specific markers (TTF-1, p40, Vimentin, Ki64 and Synaptophysin) and the amount of specific tumor cell subpopulations (i.e. CD133[+] Cancer Initiating Cells) were generally maintained in PDX. In vivo animal PET imaging showed that also metabolic activity of PDX was strictly correlated with parental tumor’s features, especially for tumours with a SUV~max~ level higher than 8 (R[2]=0.67, p<0.05). Mutation and copy number analyses, performed on 29 biological samples belonging to 11 different engrafted models, showed that genetic changes were maintained in PDX that well recapitulated the frequency of the major changes involved in lung cancer development (66.7% TP53; 60% CDKN2A, 40% LKB1, 40% KEAP1, 38.4% KRAS, 20% SWI/SNF, 20% PTEN, 8% ERBB2). Furthermore, we developed a freeze/thawing procedure on samples derived from PDXs that allows for 100% successfully thawing and established a large collection of more than 200 frozen PDX samples for future preclinical studies.

      Conclusion:
      The deep characterization of our established PDX panel confirmed that these mouse models recapitulate the parental primary tumors in terms of tumor histology, cellular and mutation pattern, metabolic activity and expression of specific markers for several passages in mice. All these data support the use of these “human in mouse” models for functional studies, highlighting the relevance of our PDX panel as a valuable platform for preclinical studies.

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