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SCIENTISTS HAVE IDENTIFIED A NEW

COMMON SUBTYPE OF PROSTATE CANCER

A recent study by a group ciate professor at Cornell. large group of patients with a kind of “avatar” of a prostate cancer tumors. It
of researchers at Memorial Because some of the tumors that haven’t been patient’s tumor and can be was. In fact, it was the sec-
Sloan Kettering Cancer genes that are switched characterized.” used to study its genetics ond most prevalent group,
Center (MSK) and Weill on in the cells are similar and biochemistry. after the androgen-sensi-
Cornell Medicine finds that to those in stem cells, Dr. The lack of sufficient tive type.
a previously unidentified Chen’s team has termed high-quality laboratory In addition, the team made
subtype of hormone-re- the newly identified third models for researching this use of patient-derived xen- Knowing the molecular
sistant prostate cancer subtype of prostate cancer form of cancer may be one ografts — tumors removed drivers of this common
makes up roughly 30% of stem cell-like (SCL). reason why the subtype from a patient and grown subtype of prostate cancer
all cases. The study was re- eluded researchers. in a mouse — for a total of opens the door to ap-
cently published in the jour- Dr. Chen and his colleagues 40 different patient-de- proaches that could target
nal Science. The discovery looked at 40 distinct “Prostate cancer is unique- rived models of prostate these drivers with drugs.
could make it possible for patient-derived models of ly difficult to propagate in cancer.
patients with this subtype prostate cancer that were the lab,” Dr. Chen explains. The scientists found that
of prostate cancer to get gathered from patients “Whereas there are hun- They could then deter- there are experimental
targeted therapies. who had cancer treatment dreds of cell lines of mel- mine whether genes are drugs currently being
at MSK and Weill Cornell to anoma and lung cancer, activated or inactive tested in humans that can
Only two prostate cancer make their discovery. there’s only three or four in the cells using these block the growth of the
subtypes had previously prostate cancer cell lines patient-derived organoids SCL subtype in laboratory
been identified: andro- “We didn’t know wheth- that are useful.” as a starting point. The sci- and animal models. They
gen-dependent and er we were going to find entists utilized this data to are currently working with
neuroendocrine before this additional subtypes,” To circumvent this prob- establish the existence of several companies to
recent research, which was Dr. Chen says. “This is a lem, the team turned to a new subtype of prostate establish a clinical trial of
led by Yu Chen. Dr. Chen is field that’s been studied a new technology called cancer. their drugs for people with
an MSK physician-scientist, for many years, by many organoids. The organ-like this subtype of prostate
a member of the Human investigators. So we were structures are grown in Next, they looked to see if cancer.
Oncology and Pathogene- happy and surprised to the lab from pieces of a the SCL subtype was ap-
sis Program, and an asso- find that there’s this fairly patient’s tumor. They are parent in a biobank of 366

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