A new method for determining biomarkers could allow physicians to personalize lung or brain cancer therapy and lower the risk of unnecessary radiation treatments.
Researchers at Vanderbilt University are using a biomarker library of peptides to determine whether or not tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy, combined with radiation therapy, is indeed effective against lung or brain cancer.
“It is difficult to assess the response of cancer in the brain or lung to treatment, since those neoplasms are difficult to access safely,” said Roberto Diaz, M.D., Ph.D., a resident in Radiation Oncology at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center. “With the proper biomarkers physicians may be able to tell if a patient is not responding to the therapy and alter their treatment strategy accordingly.”
The researchers screened lung and brain tumors to determine which peptides ? or protein fragments ? were active in the tissue environment surrounding the tumors. This phage displayed library ? called so after the bacteriophage viruses used to capture protein fragments ? was then isolated and tested.
With the library, Dr. Diaz and his colleagues could select peptides that bind to tumors that are affected by a combination of radiation and tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy, but not to tumors that do not respond to therapy. Ultimately, they uncovered 44 peptides that serve as biomarkers for response to therapy. According to Dr. Diaz, the physiological role of the 44 peptides might also point toward new cancer therapies.
“This study provides us with a starting point for understanding how tumors physiologically respond to therapy and a non-invasive technique for monitoring that response,” Dr. Diaz said.