0000000000164943

AUTHOR

Alberto Bardelli

0000-0003-1647-5070

Genetic and pharmacological modulation of DNA mismatch repair heterogeneous tumors promotes immune surveillance.

Patients affected by colorectal cancer (CRC) with DNA mismatch repair deficiency (MMRd), often respond to immune checkpoint blockade therapies, while those with mismatch repair-proficient (MMRp) tumors generally do not. Interestingly, a subset of MMRp CRCs contains variable fractions of MMRd cells, but it is unknown how their presence impacts immune surveillance. We asked whether modulation of the MMRd fraction in MMR heterogeneous tumors acts as an endogenous cancer vaccine by promoting immune surveillance. To test this hypothesis, we use isogenic MMRp (Mlh1+/+) and MMRd (Mlh1-/-) mouse CRC cells. MMRp/MMRd cells mixed at different ratios are injected in immunocompetent mice and tumor reje…

research product

ESMO consensus guidelines for the management of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer

Contains fulltext : 165965.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common malignancies in Western countries. Over the last 20 years, and the last decade in particular, the clinical outcome for patients with metastatic CRC (mCRC) has improved greatly due not only to an increase in the number of patients being referred for and undergoing surgical resection of their localised metastatic disease but also to a more strategic approach to the delivery of systemic therapy and an expansion in the use of ablative techniques. This reflects the increase in the number of patients that are being managed within a multidisciplinary team environment and speciali…

research product

Abstract CT263: Post-surgical liquid biopsy-guided treatment of stage III and high-risk stage II colon cancer patients: The PEGASUS trial

Abstract Background: Moving stage III Colon Cancer (CC) into the precision medicine space is a priority in view of the lack of molecular markers driving adjuvant treatment. Retrospective studies have demonstrated the tremendous prognostic impact of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) analysis after curative intent surgery, and suggested that lack of conversion of ctDNA from detectable to undetectable after adjuvant chemotherapy reflects treatment failure. With these premises, we have designed the PEGASUS trial (EudraCT 2019-002074-32) to prove the feasibility of using liquid biopsy to guide the post-surgical and post-adjuvant clinical management of early colon cancer patients. Methods: PEGASUS is…

research product

T Cells Expressing Receptor Recombination/Revision Machinery Are Detected in the Tumor Microenvironment and Expanded in Genomically Over-unstable Models

AbstractTumors undergo dynamic immunoediting as part of a process that balances immunologic sensing of emerging neoantigens and evasion from immune responses. Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) comprise heterogeneous subsets of peripheral T cells characterized by diverse functional differentiation states and dependence on T-cell receptor (TCR) specificity gained through recombination events during their development. We hypothesized that within the tumor microenvironment (TME), an antigenic milieu and immunologic interface, tumor-infiltrating peripheral T cells could reexpress key elements of the TCR recombination machinery, namely, Rag1 and Rag2 recombinases and Tdt polymerase, as a poten…

research product

Corrigendum to Preclinical models for precision oncology. BBACAN 1870/2 (2018) 239–246

research product

Preclinical models for precision oncology

Precision medicine approaches have revolutionized oncology. Personalized treatments require not only identification of the driving molecular alterations, but also development of targeted therapies and diagnostic tests to identify the appropriate patient populations for clinical trials and subsequent therapeutic implementation. Preclinical in vitro and in vivo models are widely used to predict efficacy of newly developed treatments. Here we discuss whether, and to what extent, preclinical models including cell lines, organoids and tumorgrafts recapitulate key features of human tumors. The potential of preclinical models to anticipate treatment efficacy and clinical benefit is also presented,…

research product

The PEGASUS trial: Post-surgical liquid biopsy-guided treatment of stage III and high-risk stage II colon cancer patients.

TPS4124 Background: Moving stage III Colon Cancer (CC) into the precision medicine space is a priority in view of the lack of molecular markers driving adjuvant treatment. Retrospective studies have demonstrated the tremendous prognostic impact of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) analysis after curative intent surgery, and suggested that lack of conversion of ctDNA from detectable to undetectable after adjuvant chemotherapy reflects treatment failure. With these premises, we have designed the PEGASUS trial (NCT04259944). Methods: PEGASUS is a prospective multicentric study designed to prove the feasibility of using liquid biopsy (LB) to guide the post-surgical and post-adjuvant clinical manag…

research product

Epigenomic landscape of human colorectal cancer unveils an aberrant core of pan-cancer enhancers orchestrated by YAP/TAZ

Cancer is characterized by pervasive epigenetic alterations with enhancer dysfunction orchestrating the aberrant cancer transcriptional programs and transcriptional dependencies. Here, we epigenetically characterize human colorectal cancer (CRC) using de novo chromatin state discovery on a library of different patient-derived organoids. By exploring this resource, we unveil a tumor-specific deregulated enhancerome that is cancer cell-intrinsic and independent of interpatient heterogeneity. We show that the transcriptional coactivators YAP/TAZ act as key regulators of the conserved CRC gained enhancers. The same YAP/TAZ-bound enhancers display active chromatin profiles across diverse human t…

research product

Antibody–Fc/FcR Interaction on Macrophages as a Mechanism for Hyperprogressive Disease in Non–small Cell Lung Cancer Subsequent to PD-1/PD-L1 Blockade

Abstract Purpose: Hyperprogression (HP), a paradoxical boost in tumor growth, was described in a subset of patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI). Neither clinicopathologic features nor biological mechanisms associated with HP have been identified. Experimental Design: Among 187 patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with ICI at our institute, cases with HP were identified according to clinical and radiologic criteria. Baseline histologic samples from patients treated with ICI were evaluated by IHC for myeloid and lymphoid markers. T-cell–deficient mice, injected with human lung cancer cells and patient-derived xenografts (PDX) belonging to specific mutat…

research product