#Eureka

Each year, head and neck cancers account for 380.000 deaths worldwide. Radiotherapy with or without concurrent chemotherapy is the primary treatment for advanced pharynx and larynx cancer. For the many patients that do not respond to primary curative (chemo) radiotherapy, salvage surgery is the final treatment for residual or recurrent disease. Unfortunately, it turns out that many patients are not fit for this treatment anymore as a consequence of earlier treatment. 

The team of Oncode Investigator Jeroen de Ridder (UMCU) finalized an Oncode Clinical Proof of Concept study, in which they tested the feasibility of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) analysis in head- and neck cancer patients as a treatment response identifier. Their results are promising and more extensive validation in larger patient cohorts is underway.

Read more here

At the start of the year, Argobio and Oncode have teamed up with Oncode Investigator Madelon Maurice and launched Laigo Bio, a new spin-off from the University Medical Center Utrecht in the emerging field of targeted protein degradation. Together with her team, Maurice has developed a new technology to allow the cell to break down cancer-specific proteins instead of just inhibiting them. This technology, called SureTACs (Surface removal Targeting Chimeras), has shown promising results in the laboratory. KWF has announced that it will fund 1.2 million euros to gain more insight into how SureTACs works and how its effectiveness can be increased.

Read the highlights here.

We’ve heard about the summer of love back in 1967, but at Oncode we can proudly state that we have witnessed a summer of impact this year. Some big papers were published over the last few months, and we can safely say that the favorite summer destination of our research community is not the beach or a city trip – Nature is the place to be.  
 
The summer of impact kickstarted with two research articles published on the 13th of July. The group of Geert Kops (Hubrecht Institute and Head of Oncode Institute), in collaboration with the group of Susanne Lens (UMC Utrecht), showed that the position of a chromosome in the cell nucleus dictates the frequency of segregation errors. Missegregation of chromosomes leads to alteration of copy number, a hallmark of many cancers. The relationship between location and error rate is an important step in understanding what drives this process.

In the same issue, the lab of Jacco van Rheenen (Netherlands Cancer Institute) published their latest work on stem cell behavior in the small and large intestine. Using intravital microscopy, his team investigated the movement of stem cells in both parts of the intestine. In the small intestine there is more conveyor belt like movement than in the large intestine. This effectively leads to a higher number of effective stem cells. Since intestinal tumors originate from the stem cell compartment, the difference in dynamics is an important step forward in understanding tumor initiation.

On the 10th of August, we saw another research paper being published in Nature. In this paper, the team of Jos Jonkers, in collaboration with the team of Lodewyk Wessels (both Netherlands Cancer Institute), took a deep dive into genetic alterations of the FGFR2 gene. Alterations in this gene are known to have a role in tumor formation and the protein therefor presents an interesting druggable target. However, the therapeutic effects for patients were unpredictable and variable so far. In a large international and multidisciplinary collaboration, the team could now show that not the amount of the FRGR2 protein is oncogenic, but the presence of a specific truncated form. This opens new ways to better diagnose patients who may benefit from therapies targeting FGFR2.

We could be proud enough if this was it last summer - but it wasn’t. Important new papers were also published in Cancer Discovery (2) and Nature Biotechnology. Wilbert Zwart (Netherlands Cancer Institute) and his team showed that therapy sensitivity in prostate cancer is halted by a protein regulating circadian rhythm. The team of Ruben van Boxtel (Princess Máxima Center) showed that chemotherapy leads to faster aging at the DNA level of healthy cells in children with cancer. Finally, a new 3D imaging and analysis technique developed in the lab of Anne Rios (Princess Máxima Center) brings the working mode of T-cell immunotherapies into live view.

All in all it was a very busy summer. Major steps were taken towards our ultimate goal: outsmarting cancer & impacting lives. Read more about all these studies on our website: 
Geert Kops & Jacco van Rheenen in Nature 
Jos Jonkers and Lodewyk Wessels in Nature 
Wilbert Zwart in Cancer Discovery 
Ruben van Boxtel in Cancer Discovery 
Anne Rios in Nature Biotechnology