SEATTLE, April 05, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SEngine Precision Medicine, a precision oncology company revolutionizing cancer therapies by pre-testing drugs on patient-derived tumor organoids, announced today that the PARIS® Test was utilized in a study to identify novel drug targets and combinations to combat ovarian clear cell carcinoma (OCCC). The study, “Targeting BET proteins BRD2 and BRD3 in combination with PI3K-AKT inhibition as a therapeutic strategy for ovarian clear cell carcinoma,” was recently published in American Association for Cancer Research’s Molecular Cancer Therapeutics and was co-authored by researchers from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, SEngine Precision Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, and the University of Washington.
Ovarian clear cell carcinoma, a relatively uncommon subtype of ovarian cancer, has historically been treated with the same platinum-based chemotherapies as patients with high grade serous carcinoma. However, clear cell carcinoma patients typically display a poorer response to chemotherapies, which leads to lower overall survival for these patients. In this study, researchers identified BET proteins BRD2 and BRD3 as novel targets against ovarian clear cell carcinoma, which could lead to more effective targeted therapies for this subtype. Additional drug sensitivity screening identified the combination of BET protein and PI3K-AKT pathway inhibitors as a promising therapeutic path for further investigation. SEngine’s PARIS® Test, a high-throughput drug sensitivity assay using patient-derived tumor organoids, was utilized in this study to validate the drug-response findings on ovarian cancer cell models. In addition to the PARIS® Test already being utilized as a clinical tool guiding oncologists’ treatment decisions for patients with ovarian cancer, this study demonstrates the power of SEngine’s functional drug sensitivity assay to identify novel therapeutic targets and drug synergies to combat hard-to-treat ovarian cancers.
"We are excited to share these new findings that identified two novel BET proteins as candidate therapeutic targets for OCCC and suggest a potential drug combination therapeutic strategy for OCCC,” said Shogo Shigeta, MD, PhD, current Research Associate in the department of gynecology at the Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine and lead author of the study. “The validation of our study with organoids derived from patient samples will help enable rapid clinical translation."
“In this study, SEngine’s PARIS® Test was applied to patient derived tumor cells to identify new therapeutic strategies for hard-to-treat cancers. This is yet another example of the benefit that functional testing brings to oncologists seeking novel treatment options,” commented Carla Grandori, MD, PhD, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of SEngine Precision Medicine.
About PARIS® Test
The PARIS® Test is based on the capability to propagate patient-specific cancer cells as organoids outside the body and is applicable to all solid tumors including colon, breast, lung, ovarian and pancreatic cancer. Organoids are cancer-derived cells grown in 3D outside the body, which maintain the functionality of the original tumor as well as its genomic characteristics. For cancers where a treatment path is not clear, such as many metastatic and recurrent cancers, the PARIS® Test provides crucial information to treating physicians to match the right drug to the right patient.
About SEngine Precision Medicine
SEngine Precision Medicine Inc. is a precision oncology company revolutionizing cancer therapies by pre-testing drugs on patient-derived organoids grown ex-vivo utilizing patient specific tumor cells. As a spin-out from the world-renowned Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, SEngine is leveraging over two decades of R&D in diagnostics and drug discovery. The Company is commercializing the PARIS® Test, a next generation diagnostic test that predicts drug responses integrating knowledge of cancer genomics with organoids, robotics, and AI-driven computational tools. SEngine’s CLIA certified PARIS® Test generates predictive drug sensitivity reports for patients with solid tumors. SEngine is also pursuing drug discovery via strategic collaborations with biopharmaceutical / pharma companies leveraging its precision oncology platform.
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Stephanie Carrington
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