ASCO 2023 | MESOMICS: molecular characterization of malignant pleural mesothelioma
Lynnette Fernandez-Cuesta, PhD, International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC-WHO), Lyon, France, provides an overview of the MESOMICS project, which aims to provide an multi-omics analysis of malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM), which currently has poor outcomes. MPM is primarily caused by exposure to asbestos, and cases are increasing. By understanding the biology of the disease, novel targets and therapies can be elucidated and developed. This interview took place at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2023 Annual Congress in Chicago, IL.
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Transcript (edited for clarity)
So first of all, I think the the discoveries of the Omics project who which has been recently published in Nature Genetics, calls for a paradigm shift in the way malignant pleural mesothelioma is diagnosed and untreated. So what we have seen is that this we need to move forward from these three groups classification to something that includes somehow this continuum because in fact in our data we have seen that the morphological classification only accounts for up to 10% of the molecular variation among samples and the morphological features...
So first of all, I think the the discoveries of the Omics project who which has been recently published in Nature Genetics, calls for a paradigm shift in the way malignant pleural mesothelioma is diagnosed and untreated. So what we have seen is that this we need to move forward from these three groups classification to something that includes somehow this continuum because in fact in our data we have seen that the morphological classification only accounts for up to 10% of the molecular variation among samples and the morphological features. They only correspond to one of the four factors that we have identified being the other ones diploidy the immune interaction and the CPG methylation and CPG island methylation. And these other three factors are as important as morphology, so they cannot be just ignored. They need to be included. Having said that, we now need to design new studies that will help us validate biomarkers that could help us identify these different factors into the clinical setting in terms of treatment. What we have seen is that these four dimensions were delimited by three phenotypes that represent cancer task specialization. So the tumors were specialized either in cell division, in the tumor immune interaction and in cell cooperation. And for example, if we think about selection of populations for immunotherapies in mesothelioma is expected that those tumors that are specialized in the tumor immune interaction are more likely to respond to immunotherapies that the ones that are specialized in cell division or cell cooperation. But if we think about more targeted therapies so here I think we need a little bit more time because the cellular processes that are underlying these different factors and these different cancer specializations are still not well understood. So we might need to go to more high, more powerful technologies like single cell sequencing to better understand these processes before we can point to some new novel targeted therapies for mesothelioma.
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