Comprehensive functional evaluation of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma with BH3-profiling demonstrates apoptotic competency and therapeutic efficacy of BH3-mimetics.

Evasion of apoptosis promotes tumor survival and contributes to resistance to cancer therapeutics in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Our recent work has demonstrated that HNSCC's highly express pro-survival anti-apoptotic proteins Bcl-xL and Mcl-1. Nevertheless, the mechanism of HNSCC to evade apoptosis is still not well understood.

In response to bacteria, neutrophils release extracellular vesicles capable of initiating thrombin generation through DNA-dependent and independent pathways.

Neutrophils release extracellular vesicles, and some subsets of neutrophil-derived extracellular vesicles are procoagulant. In response to Staphylococcus aureus, neutrophils produce extracellular vesicles that associate electrostatically with neutrophil extracellular traps. DNA in neutrophil extracellular traps is procoagulant, but whether neutrophil extracellular vesicles produced during bacterial challenge have similar activity is unknown.

Early, precise, and safe clinical evaluation of the pharmacodynamic effects of novel agents in the intact human tumor microenvironment.

Drug development is systemically inefficient. Research and development costs for novel therapeutics average hundreds of millions to billions of dollars, with the overall likelihood of approval estimated to be as low as 6.7% for oncology drugs.

Characterization of a Diverse Set of Conditionally Reprogrammed Head and Neck Cancer Cell Cultures.

Objective: To establish and characterize a diverse library of head and neck squamous cell cancer (HNSCC) cultures using conditional reprogramming (CR).

Methods: Patients enrolled on an IRB-approved protocol to generate tumor cell cultures using CR methods. Tumor and blood samples were collected and clinical information was recorded.