APPLICATIONS OF TECHNOLOGY:
- Lung cancer survival diagnostic product
ADVANTAGES:
- Robustly predicts overall survival of lung adenocarcinoma patients
- Enables stratification in clinical trials
ABSTRACT:
Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have developed a multi-step, bioinformatics strategy to mine large omics and clinical data, building a prognostic scoring system predicting the overall survival (OS) of lung adenocarcinoma (LuADC) patients. Specifically, the researchers have developed an array of nucleic acids encoding portions of genes selected from a set of 27 genes useful for predicting lung cancer survival.
The researchers identified 1327 deregulated genes, 600 of which were significantly associated with the overall survival of LuADC patients. Gene co-expression network analysis revealed the biological functions of these genes in normal lung and LuADCs, which were enriched for cell cycle-related processes, blood vessel development, cell-matrix adhesion and metabolic processes. After establishing a 600 gene expression-based molecular classification of LuADCs into four possible subtypes associated with OS, they implemented a multiple resampling method combined with Cox regression analysis.
From this procedure, researchers identified a 27-gene signature associated with OS and created a prognostic scoring system based upon it. The scoring system robustly predicted the OS of LuADC patients in 100 sampling test sets and was further validated in four independent LuADC cohorts. This is a promising result because the identification of reliable predictive biomarkers and therapeutic targets is critical for leading to great improvement in patient outcomes. In comparison to other prognostic gene signatures, the LBNL signature was significantly superior in predicting the OS of LuADC patients independent of age, gender, and clinical stage and can enable stratification in clinical trials. Additionally, it can guide adjuvant therapy for LuADC patients and includes novel potential molecular targets for therapy.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide, with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) being the most common type of cancer affecting the lungs and adenocarcinoma being the most common subtype. The five-year survival rate for NSCLC is 21%. The LBNL invention is advantageous as lung cancer treatment moves rapidly towards personalized medicine, where the molecular characteristics of an individual patient’s tumor will dictate the optimal treatment modalities.
DEVELOPMENT STAGE: Proven principle
STATUS: Patent pending. Available for licensing or collaborative research.
SEE THESE OTHER BERKELEY LAB TECHNOLOGIES IN THIS FIELD:
A Novel 12-Gene Prognostic Signature for Breast Cancer 2016-181