Patient-Derived Xenografts to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES:

I. Develop and characterize over 200 patient-derived xenografts (PDXs), with at least 50 PDXs each for gastric, liver, bladder, and lung cancers with 60% (approximately) of the PDXs from minority patients, focusing on Hispanic/Latino Americans (HLAs), African Americans (AAs), and Asian American/Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders (AANHPIs).

II. Utilize these PDXs in preclinical testing of single agents and drug combinations to guide precision cancer medicine decision-making with a focus upon the predominant racial/ethnic minority populations residing in California compared to non-Hispanic Whites (NHWs).

III. Conduct “Characterizing Treatment Responses with PDX Models for Gastric and Liver Tumors” as Research Project 1, focused on the most common histological forms of gastric cancer (GC) and liver cancers (LC) primarily from HLAs and AANHPI patients.

IV. Conduct “Characterizing Treatment Responses with PDX Models for Lung and Bladder Tumors” as Research Project 2, focused on lung squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) and advanced urothelial or bladder cancer (aBC) primarily from AA and NHW patients.

V. Collaborate with the National Cancer Institute (NCI), other PDX Development and Trial Centers (PDTCs), non-PDXNet, PDXNet Data Commons and Coordinating Centers to fulfill the mission of the PDXNet.

VI. Select and conduct pilot projects through the Pilot Projects and Trans-Network Activities Core (PPTNAC) inclusive of UCaMP members, other PDTCs and beyond that will evaluate comparative therapeutic responses using PDX models and contribute to the elucidation of biological determinants of cancer health disparities in gastric, liver, bladder, and lung cancers.

OUTLINE:

Patients undergo collection of tumor tissue samples during standard of care tumor biopsy or surgical resection to establish PDXs. Patients may also undergo collection of blood, saliva, and urine samples to compare deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) abnormalities to noncancer cells in order to determine if they were present before the cancer started or developed with it.