Experimental Oncology

Head

Massimo

Broggini

Head of Department

Dipartimento di Ricerca Oncologia Sperimentale

massimo.broggini@marionegri.it

Staff

Giada

Cenacchi

Assistant

Dipartimento di Ricerca Oncologia Sperimentale

giada.cenacchi@marionegri.it

Senior Advisor

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The goal of the Department of Experimental Oncology is to offer therapies for the treatment of tumors more effective through studies that investigate molecular, biological and pharmacological aspects.

The Department of Experimental Oncology strictly collaborates with the Department of Clinical Oncology to promote translatability of preclinical data to the clinic as well as to transfer important clinical needs to the laboratories.

The projects carried out by the Department concern different types of tumors, but the majority of preclinical and clinical studies focus on gynecological tumors, sarcomas, thoracic tumors (lung, mesotheliomas and thymomas) and pancreatic tumors.

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ObJECTIVES

Identify new "druggable" molecular targets and also biomarkers which should be diagnostic, prognostic and predictive of responsiveness to specific cancer therapies
Study tumors biology, and in particular of their growth, neoangiogenesis, metastasization and interaction with immunological mechanisms
Study the mechanism of action and of the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties of new anticancer drugs, characterized by an innovative mechanism of action able of acting directly on the tumor or on its interaction with the host
Study anticancer drugs resistance and of the possible methods to elude it
Study new combinations of drugs in experimental models

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METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES

Use of material from biobanks that allows the implementation of retrospective studies. The Department of Experimental Oncology owns an ovarian carcinomas biobank, collecting neoplastic tissues and biological fluids deriving from more than 3000 cases, also accompanied by an average updated 10-year clinical follow-up. The biobank or Biological Resource Center (CRB) is certified UNI EN ISO 9001: 2015 (No. 6121) from 2014 for the following activity: "Collection, conservation and distribution of biological samples and related data for scientific research studies"
Use of in vitro and in vivo experimental models directly derived from human samples, of ovarian tumors obtained from surgical biopsies of patients affected by this tumor as well as of sarcomas or human mesotheliomas. These models called PDX, Patient Derived Xenograft, or PDO, Patient derived organoids have been developed and characterized in department laboratories from the biological, pathological and pharmacological point of view.
Development of genetic models, which reproduce important molecular alterations, to study the biology of different human tumors and the sensitivity to specific classes of drugs
Development of human tumor models in mice, in which the tumor was chemically induced (for example sarcomas or mesotheliomas induced by carcinogens) or through genetic manipulations
Development, validation and use of highly specific and sensitive methods for the quantitative measurement of drugs and of their metabolites in normal or neoplastic tissues. Among methods used, first HPLC-MS/MS for preclinical and clinical pharmacokinetic studies and also for spatial drugs visualization, and, last but not the least, the new generation Imaging Mass Spectrometry technique
Use of NGS, Next Generation Sequencing, techniques for genomic, transcriptomic and proteomic studies, correlated by a bioinformatic competence

Results

Development of new preclinical murine experimental models of thymomas and mesotheliomas to identify new and more effective therapies
Development of a new imaging methodology which allows to test the ability of anticancer drugs to penetrate, homogeneously, into different tumor layers, improving the efficacy of the therapy
Development of organoids from lung and ovarian tumors

Current projects

‍ERANET - Euronanomed III JTC - 2018 - CONCORD - Cationic Gold nanoparticles mediated mRNA cytoplasmatictargeted delivery for production of
CAR-T lymphocytes for Chronic Lymphoid Leukemia immunotherapy

Financial Institution: Ministero della Salute, DG Ricerca e Innovazione in Sanità

Research Area: Leukemia, nanoparticles

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Ricerca Finalizzata 2019 12370632 Interference with metabolism to delay and/or overcome resistance to platinum in ovarian cancer

Financial Institution: Ministero della Salute, DG Ricerca e Innovazione in Sanità

Research Area: Ovarian Cancer

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Pancreatc ductal adenocarcinoma microenvironment: interplay between fibrosis and NKcells

Financial Institution: Fondazione Cariplo

Research Area: Pancreatic Cancer

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Thrombospondins at the interface between tumor cells and the microenvironment, from insight to therapeutic approaches

Financial Institution: Associazione Italiana per la Ricerca sul Cancro (AIRC)

Research Area: Tumor microenvironment

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New combination strategies to treat KRAS co-mutated NSCLC tumors‍

Financial Institution: Associazione Italiana per la Ricerca sul Cancro (AIRC)

Research Area: Lung Cancer
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Development of new therapies for tumors that metastatize the bone‍

Financial Institution: Fondazione Beppe e Nuccy Angiolini

Research Area: Bone tumors
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Integrative science, Intelligent data platform for Individualized LUNG cancer care with Immunotherapy‍

Financial Institution: European Commission , Horizon Health 2021

Research Area: Lung Cancer
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Exploit metabolic plasticity to improve therapeutic efficacy and manage ovarian cancer progression‍