Publications by authors named "Alison Roos"

Introduction: Matching patients to an effective targeted therapy or immunotherapy is a challenge for advanced and metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), especially when relying on assays that test one marker at a time. Unlike traditional single marker tests, comprehensive genomic profiling (CGP) can simultaneously assess NSCLC tumors for hundreds of genomic biomarkers and markers for immunotherapy response, leading to quicker and more precise matches to therapeutics.

Methods: In this study, we performed CGP on 7,606 patients with advanced or metastatic NSCLC using the Illumina TruSight Oncology 500 (TSO 500) CGP assay to show its coverage and utility in detecting known and novel features of NSCLC.

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Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common primary malignant brain tumor in adults, with few effective treatments. EGFR alterations, including expression of the truncated variant EGFRvIII, are among the most frequent genomic changes in these tumors. EGFRvIII is known to preferentially signal through STAT5 for oncogenic activation in GBM, yet targeting EGFRvIII has yielded limited clinical success to date.

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Article Synopsis
  • Children with treatment-refractory or relapsed tumors often have poor outcomes, and the genetic factors contributing to these conditions are not fully understood.
  • A study of 202 patients revealed that relapsed tumors had higher mutational burdens than untreated ones, with over 40% displaying mutations linked to previous chemotherapy treatments.
  • Analysis showed variations in neoantigens and immune cell presence, hinting at tumor evolution and resistance mechanisms that complicate treatment strategies.
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RAF family protein kinases signal through the MAPK pathway to orchestrate cellular proliferation, survival, and transformation. Identifying BRAF alterations in pediatric cancers is critically important as therapeutic agents targeting BRAF or MEK may be incorporated into the clinical management of these patients. In this study, we performed comprehensive genomic profiling on 3,633 pediatric cancer samples and identified a cohort of 221 (6.

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Genomic information is increasingly being incorporated into clinical cancer care. Large-scale sequencing efforts have deepened our understanding of the genomic landscape of cancer and contributed to the expanding catalog of alterations being leveraged to aid in cancer diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment. Genomic profiling can provide clinically relevant information regarding somatic point mutations, copy number alterations, translocations, and gene fusions.

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This clinical trial evaluated whether whole exome sequencing (WES) and RNA sequencing (RNAseq) of paired normal and tumor tissues could be incorporated into a personalized treatment plan for newly diagnosed patients (<25 years of age) with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG). Additionally, whole genome sequencing (WGS) was compared to WES to determine if WGS would further inform treatment decisions, and whether circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) could detect the H3K27M mutation to allow assessment of therapy response. Patients were selected across three Pacific Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Consortium member institutions between September 2014 and January 2016.

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Therapeutic options for the treatment of glioblastoma remain inadequate despite concerted research efforts in drug development. Therapeutic failure can result from poor permeability of the blood-brain barrier, heterogeneous drug distribution, and development of resistance. Elucidation of relationships among such parameters could enable the development of predictive models of drug response in patients and inform drug development.

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Background: Glioblastoma (GBM) is a difficult to treat brain cancer that nearly uniformly recurs, and recurrent tumors are largely therapy resistant. Our prior work has demonstrated an important role for the tumor necrosis factor-like weak inducer of apoptosis (TWEAK) receptor fibroblast growth factor-inducible 14 (Fn14) in GBM pathobiology. In this study, we investigated Fn14 expression in recurrent GBM and in the setting of temozolomide (TMZ) resistance.

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Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common brain malignancies in adults. Most GBM patients succumb to the disease less than 1 year after diagnosis due to the highly invasive nature of the tumor, which prevents complete surgical resection and gives rise to tumor recurrence. The invasive phenotype also confers radioresistant and chemoresistant properties to the tumor cells; therefore, there is a critical need to develop new therapeutics that target drivers of GBM invasion.

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Glioblastoma is the most frequent primary brain tumor in adults and a highly lethal malignancy with a median survival of about 15 months. The aggressive invasion of the surrounding normal brain makes complete surgical resection impossible, increases the resistance to radiation and chemotherapy, and assures tumor recurrence. Thus, there is an urgent need to develop innovative therapeutics to target the invasive tumor cells for improved treatment outcomes of this disease.

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Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most frequent primary brain tumor in adults with a 5-year survival rate of 5% despite intensive research efforts. The poor prognosis is due, in part, to aggressive invasion into the surrounding brain parenchyma. Invasion is a complex process mediated by cell-intrinsic pathways, extrinsic microenvironmental cues, and biophysical cues from the peritumoral stromal matrix.

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The survival of patients diagnosed with glioblastoma (GBM), the most deadly form of brain cancer, is compromised by the proclivity for local invasion into the surrounding normal brain, which prevents complete surgical resection and contributes to therapeutic resistance. Tumor necrosis factor-like weak inducer of apoptosis (TWEAK), a member of the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) superfamily, can stimulate glioma cell invasion and survival via binding to fibroblast growth factor-inducible 14 (Fn14) and subsequent activation of the transcription factor NF-κB. To discover small molecule inhibitors that disrupt the TWEAK-Fn14 signaling axis, we utilized a cell-based drug-screening assay using HEK293 cells engineered to express both Fn14 and a NF-κB-driven firefly luciferase reporter protein.

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Unlabelled: Glioblastoma (GB) is the highest grade and most common form of primary adult brain tumors. Despite surgical removal followed by concomitant radiation and chemotherapy with the alkylating agent temozolomide, GB tumors develop treatment resistance and ultimately recur. Impaired response to treatment occurs rapidly, conferring a median survival of just fifteen months.

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Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common primary tumor of the CNS and carries a dismal prognosis. The aggressive invasion of GBM cells into the surrounding normal brain makes complete resection impossible, significantly increases resistance to the standard therapy regimen, and virtually assures tumor recurrence. Median survival for newly diagnosed GBM is 14.

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Background: Osteosarcoma (OS) is the most common bone malignancy in the paediatric population, principally affecting adolescents and young adults. Minimal advancements in patient prognosis have been made over the past two decades because of the poor understanding of disease biology. Runx2, a critical transcription factor in bone development, is frequently amplified and overexpressed in OS.

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Simian virus 40 (SV40) large T antigen (SVT) interferes with normal cell regulation and thus has been used to identify cellular components controlling proliferation and homeostasis. We have previously shown that SVT-mediated transformation requires interaction with the histone acetyltransferases (HATs) CBP/p300 and now report that the ectopic expression of SVT in several cell types in vivo and in vitro results in a significant increase in the steady-state levels of CBP/p300. Furthermore, SVT-expressing cells contain higher levels of acetylated CBP/p300, a modification that has been linked to increased HAT activity.

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