CCBIO Seminar: Helga Salvesen

Individualized therapy based on molecular alterations in gynecologic cancer 

CCBIO Lecture

Helga Salvesen
Department of Gynecology of Obstetrics, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen

Gynecologic cancers have significant overlap for histological subtypes reflected in clinical phenotypes, also supported by molecular profiling of primary tumors. In the metastatic setting, patients with all types of pelvic gynecologic cancers have very poor survival, with minimal improvement over the last decades. No targeted therapy is yet available for routine clinical use. This has been linked to lack of molecular stratification in clinical trials, irrelevant pre-clinical models and limited knowledge regarding relevant targets for treatment in metastatic lesions. To overcome some of these challenges we are in the process of taking the following approach: Performing comprehensive molecular profiling of gynecologic cancers from paired metastatic and primary lesions; Testing for novel drug response in orthotopic tumor grafts harboring identified targetable lesions enriched in the metastases; Exploring functional imaging of animal models and patients in parallel related to defined molecular subtypes in parallel; Based on these findings, designing treatment trials for targeted therapy and explore distribution and clinical applicability of biomarkers in a prospective international trial (MoMaTEC 1 and 2).

Chair: Helge Wiig elge.wiig@biomed.uib.no>, Department of Biomedicine