Liquid biopsy for the study of stomach and pancreatic tumors

Compilation
Pangea Lab researchers have introduced a new way to use liquid biopsy other than bloodits dual purpose, which consists of use pleural fluid obtained in routine clinical practice to study the molecular characteristics of stomach and pancreatic tumors and at the same time cell cultures obtained from these fluids, observe in the laboratory the antitumor activity of various drugs used to treat patients with these tumors. This innovative model is another step towards the development of precision medicine in the treatment of this type of tumor.

This study, conducted by the Pangea Laboratory and the Dr. Roselle Cancer Institute (IOR), was presented during AACR Annual Meeting 2024, annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), held in San Diego, USA, from 5 to 10 April. This study is innovative in its approach and focuses on two types of cancer that are challenging to treat because they are usually diagnosed late.

Pangea Lab researchers examined the possibility of using drugs recently approved by the FDA to treat other types of cancer, such as erdafitinib.

stomach and pancreas cancer in later stages they lack effective treatments, which leads to low survival rates. To improve clinical outcomes in these cases, it is essential to find new therapeutic options and determine the optimal treatment for each patient, which is known as Precision Oncology.

For this reason, Pangea Lab researchers explored the possibility of using drugs recently approved by the FDA to treat other types of cancer, such as erdafitinibfor the treatment of bile duct or ductal cancer (cholangiocarcinoma with FGFR2 gene fusion) and two KRAS G12C gene inhibitors, adagrasib and sotorasib, for lung cancer with mutations in the KRAS G12C gene.

Analyzes of these cultures help us determine in the laboratory the antitumor activity of drugs that can be used to treat a patient.

For this they used pleural fluid, which is removed from patients during routine clinical practice. As a result, the researchers presented the creation, molecular characterization, and reaction to erdafitinib, sotorasib and adagrasib, from two cell cultures obtained from these pleural fluids. These cultures correspond to patient 1 with gastric carcinoma with FGFR2 amplification and fusion and patient 2 with pancreatic carcinoma with a KRAS G12C gene mutation. To date, there are very few cell models of these tumor types with the changes we described, that is, pancreas with KRAS G12C and gastric with the FGFR2-TACC2 fusion.

“Through this study, we demonstrate not only the potential use of pleural fluid for the molecular characterization of these gastric and pancreatic tumors, but also the establishment of cell cultures obtained from patients suffering from them. Analyzes of these cultures help us determine in the laboratory the antitumor activity of drugs that can be used to treat a patient, decide which of them is most active against each tumor and, therefore, determine the optimal treatment in each specific case. Without a doubt, this is another step towards advancing the use of personalized medicine in cancer.”

explains the researcher Silvia Garcia Romanfrom the Pangea laboratory.