48% in four days.
Shucks.
:-)
Attended a symposium on Cancer Genomics today. Snippets.....
Samuel Aparicio (UBC/BC Cancer Agency, Vancouver) presented unpublished data on clonal analysis of breast Ca. Patient-derived xenografts into immunosuppressed mice.... from a given patient, a cancer sample invariably only grows in one of three engraftment sites (subcutaneous, kidney capsule or mammary fat pad). Same histology from a different patient, ditto, but single site of growth can be different. Samples taken from a Her2- patient, after years of therapy and metastasis... isolated clones can be Her2+. Don't make treatment assumptions based on original phenotype! Great presentation.
Matthew Meyerson (Dana Farber, Broad Institute and Harvard, founding scientist, Foundation Medicine) presented unpublished data for transforming drivers in squamous/lung. Tons of good stuff, but emphasis on HLA-A loss of function mutations. Now have been detected in multiple cancer types, head/neck and cancers with high replication rates. Not seen frequently in breast Ca. Emphasized that squamous responds to anti-PDL1, linking genomics and immunotherapy. Not certain that I get that last bit, as it seems that HLA loss variants would be better targeted with an NK cell agonist or an agent that targets myeloid-derived suppressors. Would love comments.
Scientists from ILMN were very visible among audience. May have heard that they plan to release, soon, an assay for the detection of circulating cancer nucleic acids. Could be old news, for all I know. Could be flat-out incorrect, too.
:-) |
