Addressing biological and therapeutic gaps in rare neuroendocrine cancer with a novel organoid-based model

University Of Texas Hlth Science Center, San Antonio TX

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Abstract

Abstract The work proposed on the parental grant is focused on developing new organoid models of rare and understudied neuroendocrine tumors pheochromocytomas and paragangliomas to improve our understanding of their biology and serve as a drug screen platform. Mutations in genes of the hypoxia pathway are a feature of approximately 40% of pheochromocytomas and paragangliomas and involve most metastatic forms of these tumors. In this diversity supplement we propose to extend the parent grant by testing the effects of hypoxia in the fitness and molecular features of the organoid cultures. We will also investigate whether hypoxia alters the organoids’ drug response profile. These findings will improve our knowledge of factors that influence organoid properties and may offer insights into drug sensitive/resistance patterns that might impact on future therapeutic testing.