In September 2007, the NFGC chose to fund this project led by Johnathan Lancaster, MD, PhD. Overview: In previous NFGC-funded research studies, Dr. Lancaster's group developed a gene expression profile that could predict response to chemotherapy for advanced-stage ovarian cancer using RNA extracted from fresh frozen and formalin fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) specimens. It is anticipated that the use of such predictive profiles in clinical-decision making will enable therapies to be tailored to individual patients, and thus improve response rates, decrease unnecessary toxicities, and enhance quality of life for patients with ovarian cancer. Their work to date has identified a multi-gene signature in FFPE samples that appears to predict ovarian cancer platinum-response with high accuracy. Before this signature can be validated in larger numbers of samples, it will be necessary to develop a real-time polymerase chain reaction (RTPCR)-based assay that is more applicable to larger scale clinical testing. The NFGC is providing funding for this project to support the RTPCR assay development.
Objective: The goal of this project is to develop clinically useful RTPCR-based assays from microarray-based gene expression signatures identified in FFPE, that predict ovarian cancer chemotherapy response.
Page created 12/7/07