Publications by authors named "Andrew Cherniack"

Molecular subtypes, such as defined by The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), delineate a cancer's underlying biology, bringing hope to inform a patient's prognosis and treatment plan. However, most approaches used in the discovery of subtypes are not suitable for assigning subtype labels to new cancer specimens from other studies or clinical trials. Here, we address this barrier by applying five different machine learning approaches to multi-omic data from 8,791 TCGA tumor samples comprising 106 subtypes from 26 different cancer cohorts to build models based upon small numbers of features that can classify new samples into previously defined TCGA molecular subtypes-a step toward molecular subtype application in the clinic.

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  • - The study explores the combination of pembrolizumab (an anti-PD1 therapy) and trebananib (an angiopoietin inhibitor) in patients with metastatic ovarian cancer and microsatellite stable (MSS) colorectal cancer, as both cancers show resistance to PD1 immunotherapy.
  • - Results indicate that the highest tolerated dose of the combination therapy is trebananib at 30 mg/kg weekly plus pembrolizumab at 200 mg every 3 weeks, with a modest overall response rate of 7.3%, including durable responses in three MSS CRC patients.
  • - The successful patients exhibited particular tumor characteristics, such as left-sided CRC and no liver metastases; highlighting the need for further research into how
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  • The study examines gene regulatory changes associated with cancer by analyzing chromatin accessibility across eight different tumor types, revealing the influence of copy number alterations on tumor characteristics.
  • Researchers found specific chromatin signatures in cancer that are closely related to healthy cell types, particularly noting similarities between basal-like breast cancer and secretory-type luminal epithelial cells.
  • Advanced neural network models highlighted the significance of noncoding mutations near cancer-associated genes, suggesting that widely dispersed mutations in cancer have important functional roles in gene regulation.
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Background: Velcrins are molecular glues that kill cells by inducing the formation of a protein complex between the RNase SLFN12 and the phosphodiesterase PDE3A. Formation of the complex activates SLFN12, which cleaves tRNA(TAA) and induces apoptosis. Velcrins such as the clinical investigational compound, BAY 2666605, were found to have activity across multiple solid tumor cell lines from the cancer cell line encyclopedia, including glioblastoma cell lines.

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  • A study examined how molecular features, clinical metrics, and treatment affect the overall survival of glioma patients amidst recent changes in classification and care standards.
  • The research involved analyzing 4,400 gliomas from various sources, finding that 27.2% had updated molecular classifications that differed from their initial diagnoses; survival rates varied significantly between different patient groups.
  • The study identified key prognostic factors for different glioma types and created survival prediction tools based on age, molecular features, and treatment, aiming to enhance understanding and research on gliomas.
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  • A study conducted at Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center focused on classifying pediatric solid tumor diagnoses and analyzing genomic mutations to improve clinical trial design and treatment options.
  • Over 6.5 years, the research included 888 pediatric cancer patients, revealing that 33% had genomic variants that aligned with precision oncology trials, while 14% received targeted therapies.
  • The findings stress the significance of using genomic data for enhancing treatment strategies and the necessity for data sharing, particularly for addressing rare pediatric cancers in clinical settings.
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  • Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) is a rare and aggressive form of breast cancer, with limited understanding of its biological mechanisms due to insufficient genomic studies.
  • A study analyzing data from 2457 patients found that IBC cases were generally diagnosed at a younger age and had higher grades, with significant associations to hormone receptor-negative and HER2-positive tumors.
  • The research revealed frequent somatic alterations in IBC, particularly in HER2-positive cases, and highlighted the NOTCH pathway's potential involvement, while overall genomic differences between IBC and non-IBC were minimal, suggesting the complexity of IBC pathology.
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The epidermal growth factor receptor, EGFR, is frequently activated in lung cancer and glioblastoma by genomic alterations including missense mutations. The different mutation spectra in these diseases are reflected in divergent responses to EGFR inhibition: significant patient benefit in lung cancer, but limited in glioblastoma. Here, we report a comprehensive mutational analysis of EGFR function.

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Purpose: ERBB2-amplified colorectal cancer is a distinct molecular subtype with expanding treatments. Implications of concurrent oncogenic RAS/RAF alterations are not known.

Experimental Design: Dana-Farber and Foundation Medicine Inc.

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Emerging data suggest that induction of viral mimicry responses through activation of double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) sensors in cancer cells is a promising therapeutic strategy. One approach to induce viral mimicry is to target molecular regulators of dsRNA sensing pathways. Here, we show that the exoribonuclease XRN1 is a negative regulator of the dsRNA sensor protein kinase R (PKR) in cancer cells with high interferon-stimulated gene expression.

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  • Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) improve survival in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), but many patients eventually develop acquired resistance (AR), with underlying mechanisms largely unknown.
  • The study analyzed tumor biopsies from 82 NSCLC patients who developed AR after ICI treatment, using techniques like genomic profiling and immunophenotyping, and compared them to control patients who received other treatments.
  • Results showed that AR was linked to specific mutations in about 27.8% of patients, significant reductions in certain immune cells and HLA class I expression, pointing to the complex nature of resistance that must be addressed in future therapies.
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  • The study analyzes genomic data from 1,039 patients with HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer to compare HER2-low and HER2-0 tumors.
  • There is a significant difference in ERBB2 allele copy counts, with HER2-low tumors having a median of 2.05 compared to 1.79 in HER2-0 tumors, and HER2-0 tumors showing a higher rate of ERBB2 hemideletions (31.1% vs. 14.5%).
  • Overall, aside from these differences, the genomic characteristics and tumor mutational burden are similar between HER2-low and HER2-0 tumors.
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Utilization of tumor-only sequencing has expanded in pediatric cancer patients, which can lead to identification of pathogenic variants in genes that may be germline and/or have uncertain relevance to the tumor in question, such as the homologous recombination (HR) pathway genes BRCA1/2. We identified patients with pathogenic BRCA1/2 mutations from somatic tumor sequencing, and performed additional germline sequencing to assess for the presence of loss of heterozygosity (LOH). Of seven patients identified, four (57.

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Emerging data suggest that induction of viral mimicry responses through activation of double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) sensors in cancer cells is a promising therapeutic strategy. One approach to induce viral mimicry is to target molecular regulators of dsRNA sensing pathways. Here, we show that the exoribonuclease XRN1 is a negative regulator of the dsRNA sensor protein kinase R (PKR) in cancer cells with high interferon-stimulated gene (ISG) expression.

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  • Some pancreatic cancers (about 8-10%) don't have a common mutation called KRAS, which makes them different from most cases.
  • In a study of 795 pancreatic cancer patients, 73 were found to have KRAS wild-type (normal) cancer, and many had other mutations that could be targeted for treatment.
  • The research shows that patients with this type of cancer are generally younger and may respond well to specific therapies, especially if they have certain genetic changes.
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  • Aneuploidies are changes in the number of chromosomes in cancer cells and are very common.
  • Scientists created a tool called BISCUT to find specific areas in the genome that help cancer cells survive or grow faster.
  • The study discovered important genes related to cancer, including one called WRN, and showed that these chromosome changes are influenced by how much they help or hurt the cells.
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Introduction: Although gene-level copy number alterations have been studied as a potential biomarker of immunotherapy efficacy in NSCLC, the impact of aneuploidy burden and chromosomal arm-level events on immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) efficacy in NSCLC is uncertain.

Methods: Patients who received programmed cell death protein 1 or programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) inhibitor at two academic centers were included. Across all 22 chromosomes analyzed, an arm was considered altered if at least 70% of its territory was either gained or deleted.

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Purpose: ATM is the most commonly mutated DNA damage and repair gene in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC); however, limited characterization has been pursued.

Experimental Design: Clinicopathologic, genomic, and treatment data were collected for 5,172 patients with NSCLC tumors which underwent genomic profiling. ATM IHC was performed on 182 NSCLCs with ATM mutations.

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Purpose: Osteosarcoma risk stratification, on the basis of the presence of metastatic disease at diagnosis and histologic response to chemotherapy, has remained unchanged for four decades, does not include genomic features, and has not facilitated treatment advances. We report on the genomic features of advanced osteosarcoma and provide evidence that genomic alterations can be used for risk stratification.

Materials And Methods: In a primary analytic patient cohort, 113 tumor and 69 normal samples from 92 patients with high-grade osteosarcoma were sequenced with OncoPanel, a targeted next-generation sequencing assay.

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Purpose: Multiple FGFR inhibitors are currently in clinical trials enrolling adults with different solid tumors, while very few enroll pediatric patients. We determined the types and frequency of alterations () in pediatric cancers to inform future clinical trial design.

Methods: Tumors with alterations were identified from two large cohorts of pediatric solid tumors subjected to targeted DNA sequencing: The Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Profile Study (n = 888) and the multi-institution GAIN/iCAT2 (Genomic Assessment Improves Novel Therapy) Study (n = 571).

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