Hsa_circRNA_405159 Is A Novel Biomarker to Evaluate the Efficacy of Neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy in Rectal Cancer
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ABSTRACT: Our study was the first to investigate the role of hsa_circ_004119 in RC of NACRT, providing a biomarker about the efficacy of NACRT. Hsa_circRNA_405159 could be the therapeutic target of rectal cancer to improve the efficiency of neoadjuvant chemoradiation.
Project description:Background: Neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (NCRT) is the treatment of choice in advanced rectal cancer, even though there are many patients who will not benefit from it. There are still no effective methods for predicting which patients will respond or not. The present study aimed to define the genomic profile of rectal tumors and to identify alterations that are predictive of response in order to optimize therapeutic strategies. Methods: Forty-eight candidates for NCRT were recruited and their pretherapy biopsies analyzed by array Comparative Genomic Hybridization (aCGH). Pathologic response was evaluated by tumor regression grade (TRG).Results: Both Smoothing and Hidden Markov Model (HMM) approaches identified similar alterations, with a prevalence of DNA gains. Non responsive patients had a different alteration profile from responsive ones, with a higher number of genome changes mainly located on 2q21, 7q21, 7q36, 13q12, 13q32-34, 16p13, 17p12 chromosomal regions. Conclusion: This exploratory study suggests that an in depth characterization of chromosomal alterations by aCGH would provide useful predictive information about response to NCRT and help to optimize therapy in rectal cancer patients. 48 samples included in the study were analyzed on whole genome BAC arrays with the aim to characterize genomic alterations and correlate them with the tumor response to therapy. The case series was composed by 15%,81% and 4% of uT2, uT3 and uT4 tumors, respectively. At the diagnosis 56% of patients had uN0 tumors and 44% uN+. 30%,13%, 23% and 34% of patients reached/mantained respectively ypT0, ypT1, ypT2 and ypT3. With regard to response to NCRT, according to TRG criteria proposed by Dworak, two group were defined: non responders (TRG0-2= 56%) and responders (TRG3-4=44%). Clinical and pathological parameters: uT: pre-therapy stage determined by ultrasounds techniques uN: pre-therapy lymph node status determined by ultrasounds techniques ypT: pathologic stage after a neoadjuvant treatment ypN: pathologic lymph node status after a neoadjuvant treatment
Project description:Background: Neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (NCRT) is the treatment of choice in advanced rectal cancer, even though there are many patients who will not benefit from it. There are still no effective methods for predicting which patients will respond or not. The present study aimed to define the genomic profile of rectal tumors and to identify alterations that are predictive of response in order to optimize therapeutic strategies. Methods: Forty-eight candidates for NCRT were recruited and their pretherapy biopsies analyzed by array Comparative Genomic Hybridization (aCGH). Pathologic response was evaluated by tumor regression grade (TRG).Results: Both Smoothing and Hidden Markov Model (HMM) approaches identified similar alterations, with a prevalence of DNA gains. Non responsive patients had a different alteration profile from responsive ones, with a higher number of genome changes mainly located on 2q21, 7q21, 7q36, 13q12, 13q32-34, 16p13, 17p12 chromosomal regions. Conclusion: This exploratory study suggests that an in depth characterization of chromosomal alterations by aCGH would provide useful predictive information about response to NCRT and help to optimize therapy in rectal cancer patients.
Project description:Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common lethal malignancy in Korea and worldwide. Rectal cancer patients occupy about 30% of CRC patients, and the majority of rectal cancer patients had locally advanced disease at diagnosis. The standard treatment of locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC) is neoadjuvant radiation therapy with concurrent chemotherapy (CCRT) followed by total mesorectal excision (TME). This multidisciplinary team approach improved local tumor control and overall survival of rectal cancer patients. High throughput proteomic analysis and machine learning algorithm identify DUOX2 (dual oxidase 2) as a novel biomarker for prediction of non-complete response after concurrent chemoradiation therapy for rectal cancer.High throughput proteomic analysis and machine learning algorithm identify DUOX2 (dual oxidase 2) as a novel biomarker for prediction of non-complete response after concurrent chemoradiation therapy for rectal cancer.
Project description:The treatment strategy of rectal cancer has substantially changed in recent decades. Historically postoperative chemoradiotherapy (CRT) was considered to be the first-line therapy for stage II and III rectal cancers. However, the preoperative CRT is now considered to be the optimal therapy regimen for locally advanced rectal ancer due to its improved local control, reduced toxicity, and increased rate of sphincter preservation. Our study established a clinically practical multi-class prediction model by adopting a novel strategy that applies two separate prediction models (MI and TO predictor) sequentially to a patient to predict the response. For promising clinical practice, we validated our model in a published dataset, which is completely independent dataset from ours. This study suggests a clinically plausible prediction model that correctly infers the preoperative CRT response of patients with high accuracy based on 163 gene signatures we identified. Total RNAs were isolated from primary rectal tumor tissues of 69 patients who underwent chemoradiation therapy (CRT). These patients are classified into four different CRT responses: minimal response (MI), moderate response (MO), near total response (NT) and total response (TO). All the RNAs were subjected to microarray analysis using Affymetrix GenChip arrays.
Project description:The incorporation of chemoradiation prior to resection of the tumour has revolutionized the management of locally advanced rectal cancer. However, a large proportion of these patients are resistant to preoperative treatment schedule. We recently reported that c-Myc gene expression correlates negatively with this resistance in patients with rectal cancer. In this study, we carried out integrated analysis of miRNA and mRNA expression profiling in 45 pre-treatment rectal tumour. Further, expression of miRNAs and c-Myc, and their relationship with clinicopathological factors and patient survival was analysed. As a result, we found that 12 miRNAs were differentially expressed between responder and non-responder rectal cancer patients. Functional classification revealed an association between differentially expressed miRNAs and c-Myc. Subsequent quantitative real-time PCR results showed that both, miRNA-148 and miRNA-375 levels were significantly lower in responder compared to non-responder patients. Notably, the higher level of miRNA-375 was significantly negatively correlated with c-Myc. These results suggest that miRNA-375 and its targeted c-Myc play an important role as predictive biomarker of response to neoadjuvant treatment in patients with locally advanced rectal cancer, but still not suitable for prognosis. Pre-treatment biopsies of 22 patients with LARC were prospectively collected and freshly frozen according to an institutional board-approved protocol. Tumour response was assessed in surgical specimens by pathological examination based on the semi-quantitative tumour regression grading (TRG) system described by Mandard in 1994[36]: TRG1 and TRG2 scores were considered responders, whereas TRG3, TRG4, and TRG5 were classified as non-responders. The inclusion criteria were: histologically proven rectal tumour at a clinical stage UICC II-III (cT3-4/and or N positive), following endorectal ultrasound and/or MRI scan. Patients were excluded if they had the tumour located above 13 cm from the anal verge by rigid rectoscopy, synchronic colonic cancer assessed by colonoscopy, distant metastases by 18FDG PET-CT scan, and suspicion of hereditary colorectal cancer. All patients subsequently received a total dose of 50.4Gy of radiation (28 fractions of 1.8Gy) associated with capecitabine (oral form of 5-FU) with or without oxaliplatine, according to our Hospital Clinical Practice Guidelines. Standardized Surgery was performed, including total mesorectal excision, following an interval of 8-10 weeks after completion of CT/RT.
Project description:Rectal cancer is most frequently diagnosed at a locally advanced stage and treated by neoadjuvant chemoradiation. Current efforts to improve treatment outcome are focused on intensifying neoadjuvant chemotherapy, which is however associated with higher levels of toxicity. To discover alternative strategies, we established patient-derived rectal cancer organoids (PDOs) that reflect clinical radiosensitivity and used these organoids to screen 1596 drug-radiation combinations. We found that inhibitors of RAS-MAPK signaling, especially MEK inhibitors, strongly enhance radiation response. Mechanistically, MEK inhibitors suppressed radiation-induced activation of RAS-MAPK signaling, and selectively downregulated RAD51, a key component of the homologous recombination DNA repair pathway. Through testing drug-drug-radiation combinations in organoids and cell lines, we identified that a combined PARP and MEK inhibition can further enhance radiosensitivity of colorectal cancers, which was confirmed in mouse xenograft models. Our data support clinical testing of MEK and PARP combination therapy with radiation in locally advanced rectal cancers as an alternative to chemoradiation Microarrays were used to investigate the effect of radiation treatment on gene expression in three patient-derived colorectal cancer organoid lines.
Project description:Most patients with locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC) present incomplete pathological response (pIR) to neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (nCRT). Despite the efforts to predict treatment response using tumor-molecular features, as differentially expressed genes, no molecule has proved to be a strong biomarker. The tumor secretome analysis is a promising strategy for biomarkers identification, which can be assessed using transcriptomic data. Here, we performed transcriptomic-based secretome analysis to select potentially secreted proteins using an in silico approach. The tumor expression profile of 28 LARC biopsies carefully selected and collected before nCRT was compared with normal rectal tissues (NT). The expression profile showed no significant differences between cases with complete (pCR) and incomplete response to nCRT. Genes with increased expression (pCR = 106 and pIR = 357) were used for secretome analysis based on public databases (Vesiclepedia, Human Cancer Secretome Database and Plasma and Proteome Database). Seventeen potentially secreted candidates (pCR=1, pIR=13 and 3 in both groups) were further investigated in two independent datasets (TCGA and GSE68204) confirming their over-expression in LARC. The potential secreted biomarkers were also confirmed as associated with the nCRT response (GSE68204). These putative proteins are candidates to be assessed in liquid biopsies aiming a personalized treatment in LARC patients.
Project description:Importance: Neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (CRT) is the standard of care for advanced rectal cancer. Yet, predicting response to CRT remains an unmet clinical challenge. Objective: To investigate the transcriptomic determinants to predict response to neoadjuvant CRT and survival in patients with advanced rectal cancer. Design: A single-center, retrospective, cohort study. Setting: A comprehensive cancer center. Participants: Pre-treatment biopsies from 298 patients with rectal cancer, who were later treated with neoadjuvant CRT between 2004 and 2020, were analyzed by RNA sequencing. Main measures and outcomes: Transcriptional subtyping was performed by consensus molecular subtype (CMS) classification. Immune cell infiltration was assessed using MCP-counter scores and single-sample gene set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA). Patients with surgical specimens of tumor regression grade (TRG) 3-4 or who were managed by the watch-and-wait approach for more than 3 years were defined as good responders. Results: Patients classified as CMS1 (6.4%) had a significantly higher rate of good responders; albeit survival was comparable among the four subtypes. Good responders exhibited an enrichment in various immune-related pathways (IFNg and a responses, allograft rejection, IL6 STAT3 signaling during acute phase response, and inflammation), as determined by ssGSEA. MCP-counter scores for cytotoxic lymphocytes were significantly higher for good responders than non-responders (p = 0.0003), and significantly higher for responders than non-responders in GSE109057 (p = 0.0137), GSE87211 (p = 0.0092), and GSE45404 (p = 0.0327) datasets. Cytotoxic lymphocyte MCP-counter score was thus considered an independent predictor of response to CRT, as determined in the multivariable Cox analysis (OR 3.810 [95% CI 1.820-7.970]; p = 0.0004). Multivariable Cox analysis, including post-operative pathological factors, revealed cytotoxic lymphocyte MCP-counter score to be independently associated with recurrence-free survival (HR 0.382 [95% CI 0.158-0.923]; p = 0.0325) and overall survival (HR 0.157 [95% CI 0.030-0.827]; p = 0.0290). ssGSEA showed significantly higher levels of four subpopulations of cytotoxic cells (effector memory CD8 T, natural killer T, natural killer, and activated CD8 T cells) among good responders than non-responders. Conclusions and Relevance: Cytotoxic lymphocyte score, as computed by RNA sequencing, could be a useful marker for predicting response to CRT and survival among patients with rectal cancer.
Project description:Neoadjuvant chemoradiation therapy (CRT) is a widely used preoperative treatment strategy for locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC). However, a few studies have evaluated the molecular changes caused by neoadjuvant CRT in these cancer tissues. Here, we aimed to investigate changes in immunotherapy-related immunogenic effects in response to preoperative CRT in LARC. We analyzed 60 pairs of human LARC tissues before and after irradiation from three independent LARC cohorts, including a LARC patient RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) dataset from our cohort and GSE15781 and GSE94104 datasets. Gene ontology analysis showed that preoperative CRT significantly enriched the immune response in LARC tissues. Moreover, gene set enrichment analysis revealed six significantly enriched Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathways associated with downregulated genes, including mismatch repair (MMR) genes, in LARC tissues after CRT in all three cohorts. Radiation also induced apoptosis and downregulated various MMR system-related genes in three colorectal cancer cells. One patient with LARC showed a change in microsatellite instability (MSI) status after CRT, as demonstrated by the loss of MMR protein and PCR for MSI. Moreover, CRT significantly increased tumor mutational burden in LARC tissues. CIBERSORT analysis revealed that the proportions of M2 macrophages and CD8 T cells were significantly increased after CRT in both the RNA-seq dataset and GSE94104. Notably, preoperative CRT increased various immune biomarker scores, such as the interferon-γ signature, the cytolytic activity and the immune signature. Taken together, our findings demonstrated that neoadjuvant CRT modulated the immune-related characteristics of LARC, suggesting that neoadjuvant CRT may enhance the responsiveness of LARC to immunotherapy.