Precision diagnostics and tumor immunology in lung cancer
Short description
Projects in Johan Botling's group are based on population-based cohorts of lung cancer patients with annotated histological samples and liquid biopsies linked to clinical data:
Genomic characterization of real-world lung cancer samples to discern the relationship between treatment targets, co-mutations, and tumor immunity.
Characterization of the tumor microenvironment with focus on macrophage, T-cell and NK-cell subsets - to pave the way for novel immune-modulators and cancer vaccines.
Molecular epidemiology in the national lung cancer registry. Impact of driver mutation status on baseline clinicopathological parameters, survival and treatment outcomes.
Implementation of diagnostic grade comprehensive molecular profiling in clinical studies such as MEGALiT and START-NET, to allow swift patient recruitment to complex clinical trials.
Current diagnostic initiatives and translational research efforts are focused on targets and treatments that have not been approved for use in routine healthcare. Therefore, there is need for implementation of robust diagnostic grade analysis platforms for true translational research. Without such efforts popular visions of “precision medicine” will be futile. Our goal is to provide real-world knowledge on tumor genetics, tumor suppressive macrophages, immune modulators and neoantigens that can be investigated further in exploratory treatment arms in precision oncology trials such as MEGALiT, and linked to tumor progression mechanisms in the START-NET study on neuroendocrine tumors, in the coming years.
Real-world data from the national lung cancer registry has revealed novel links between KRAS G12C mutations and brain metastasis that have inpact om the diagnostic work-up of patient regarding routines for screening of these NSCLC patients for brain metastasis. Also, we have shown a significant prevalence of driver mutations in squamous cell lung cancer patients which warrants rewriting of testing guidelines for these patients.
The development and inplementation of broad sequencing via the GMS560 panel, nationally and now locally in Gothenburg will enable comprehensive diagnostics of selected cancer patients in routine care.
Johan Botling
Principal Investigator
Affiliation:
Department of Laboratory Medicine,
Institute of Biomedicine
Group members
Recruiting in progress
Anders Bergström, PhD student, Senior consultant histopathologist