Abstract
<div>AbstractPurpose:<p>Ovarian cancer has one of the highest deaths to incidence ratios across all cancers. Initial chemotherapy is effective, but most patients develop chemoresistant disease. Mechanisms driving clinical chemo-response or -resistance are not well-understood. However, achieving optimal surgical cytoreduction improves survival, and cytoreduction is improved by neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT). NACT offers a window to profile pre- versus post-NACT tumors, which we used to identify chemotherapy-induced changes to the tumor microenvironment.</p>Experimental Design:<p>We obtained matched pre- and post-NACT archival tumor tissues from patients with high-grade serous ovarian cancer (patient, <i>n</i> = 6). We measured mRNA levels of 770 genes (756 genes/14 housekeeping genes, NanoString Technologies), and performed reverse phase protein array (RPPA) on a subset of matched tumors. We examined cytokine levels in pre-NACT ascites samples (<i>n</i> = 39) by ELISAs. A tissue microarray with 128 annotated ovarian tumors expanded the transcriptional, RPPA, and cytokine data by multispectral IHC.</p>Results:<p>The most upregulated gene post-NACT was <i>IL6</i> (16.79-fold). RPPA data were concordant with mRNA, consistent with elevated immune infiltration. Elevated IL6 in pre-NACT ascites specimens correlated with a shorter time to recurrence. Integrating NanoString (<i>n</i> = 12), RPPA (<i>n</i> = 4), and cytokine (<i>n</i> = 39) studies identified an activated inflammatory signaling network and induced <i>IL6</i> and <i>IER3</i> (immediate early response 3) post-NACT, associated with poor chemo-response and time to recurrence.</p>Conclusions:<p>Multiomics profiling of ovarian tumor samples pre- and post-NACT provides unique insight into chemo-induced changes to the tumor microenvironment. We identified a novel IL6/IER3 signaling axis that may drive chemoresistance and disease recurrence.</p></div>
Published Version
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call