EMT-6 syngeneic breast tumor model – a powerful tool for immuno-oncology studies

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in the United States and is the fourth leading cause of cancer death. In 2017, an estimated 252,710 new cases were diagnosed (15% of all new cancers) and 40,610 patient deaths occurred. Early detection initiatives together with improved treatment options have resulted in increases in the 5-year overall survival rate from 75% in 1975 to over 90% today.[1] Despite the favorable survival statistics, metastatic disease continues to be a treatment challenge and often results in death. For this reason, the continual development of new treatments for breast cancer is necessary.

E0771 syngeneic breast cancer model

Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a complex and aggressive subtype of breast cancer lacking estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, and HER2 amplifications; making it difficult to target therapeutically. Consequently, there’s a constant demand for better treatment options for TNBC. To help address the need for TNBC models, we highlighted the EMT6 model last month and herein we put forth the E0771 model, another TNBC syngeneic model for use in preclinical immuno-oncology. The E0771 cell line is a spontaneously developing medullary breast adenocarcinoma from C57BL/6 mice.[1] Parental E0771 is poorly metastatic when compared to 4T1[2] and has homozygous mutations in the Trp53 and KRAS genes.[3]

MB49 – a bladder cancer murine tumor model

Bladder cancer is one of the most frequent cancers of the urinary tract, accounting for about 80,000 new cases and 18,000 deaths in the United States in 2018, according to the National Cancer Society. Typically, patients with bladder cancer have limited surgical or treatment options. Traditional chemotherapeutics are ineffective, and surgery is often used to diagnose bladder cancer and to determine whether the cancer has spread into (invaded) the muscle layer of the bladder wall.  When bladder cancer is invasive, all or part of the bladder may need to be removed, leaving the patient with long term adverse effects. In an effort to meet the need for advances in bladder cancer treatment, in 2018 the FDA accelerated the approvals for two checkpoint inhibitors, Keytruda and Tecentriq.

MC38: An immunoresponsive murine tumor model

Colorectal cancer is the fourth most common cancer diagnosed in the United States. Colorectal cancer represents the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths in women and the second in men. In 2019, over 145,000 estimated new cases of colorectal cancer in the United States will be diagnosed and more than 51,000 patient deaths will occur. Prevention and early detection initiatives over the last several decades, together with improved treatment options, have resulted in reductions in colorectal cancer diagnoses and deaths. These measures have also increased the five-year overall survival rate to 64.9%, but survival drops precipitously for those patients whose cancer is not detected early.[1] For this reason, the development of new treatments for colorectal cancer is a continual need.

Phospho-protein detection in solid tumors using phospho-flow cytometry

In this article, we will be presenting phospho-protein detection in solid tumors using phospho-flow cytometry and reviewing the analysis of cabozantinib-induced inhibition of PI3K/AKT and JAK-STAT signaling in tumor vs. host immune cells.

D.P. Dash, PhD, PGCHET

Dr. D.P. Dash is a New York State Department of Health certified clinical Laboratory Director in Oncology (Molecular and Cellular Tumor Markers) and Genetics Testing (Molecular).  He earned his PhD in genomics at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Queen’s University Belfast and a Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education Teaching (PGCHET), also at Queen's University Belfast.  Dr.

MV(4;11): A model of human AML (acute myeloid leukemia)

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a malignant disorder of the progenitor cells in myeloid hematopoiesis and represents a genetically heterogeneous cancer. The onset of AML is thought to require cooperation between active proliferation and defects in myeloid differentiation, which often results in chromosomal translocation (Gilliland et al., 2004). The annual incidence of AML is ~1.8 per 100,000 people with incidence increasing significantly with age.  Clinically, a number of novel therapeutic strategies to improve outcomes in AML are being investigated. However, even with the advances in therapies and improvements in early diagnosis, the majority of patients will die from their disease.

MDA-MB-231-luc-D3H2LN: A valuable model for triple-negative breast cancer research

Breast cancer is the most common non-skin cancer among women. One in eight women will develop invasive breast cancer during her lifetime, and about 10-20% of those women (more than one out of every 10) will be diagnosed with a triple-negative sub-type (ER-, PR- and HER2-). There is intense interest in developing new drugs that can treat this kind of breast cancer. Unfortunately, there are only a few preclinical models that mimic this expression profile.

Measuring Tumor Antigen-Specific Immunity Through ELISpot and FluoroSpot

Enhancement of the tumor antigen-specific response is an intended outcome of immunotherapy. Be it through an acute increase in anti-tumor immunity or formation of long-lived immunological memory, drugs that successfully boost the host adaptive immune response have a better chance of clinical success1.

Pan02 – pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma model characterized for immuno-oncology applications

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the most prevalent form of pancreatic cancer representing about 95% of all cases. In 2017, approximately 50,987 people will be diagnosed with PDAC in the United States, and approximately 40,936 patient deaths will occur, making PDAC one of the most lethal forms of cancer. Combination anti-metabolite and anti-mitotic taxane based chemotherapy is the standard of care in the US, but these treatment options historically only improve overall survival by weeks. There is a critical unmet medical need for novel therapeutic approaches to treat pancreatic cancer.