Organ Site-Specific Biomarkers Identification and Treatment Stratification in Metastatic Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Patients

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), an endemic carcinoma, is associated with Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) infection. Advances in radiation oncology including combined chemotherapy and radiotherapy (CCRT) and intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) have improved local control, and distant metastasis becomes the main treatment failure. The outcome of salvage treatment for metastasis is poor and the tumor extent at the time of recurrence is an important determinant of survival. However, the metastasis (M1) stage cover a heterogenous group patients ranging from potentially curable to incurable, and does not allow clinicians to stratify patients according to prognosis or guide therapeutic decision making. Some studies have reported that patients with lung metastasis belong to a distinct group with a good prognosis and better survival. Other studies have shown that liver metastasis is poor prognostic factor for metastatic survival in metastatic NPC and is associated with a shorter survival when compared with lung or bone metastases. Different metastatic sites may have different natural courses with different genetic and protein profiles. The following approach will be proposed: Aim 1: Analysis the different organ site metastasis with overall survival (OS) in NPC patients. 1-1 Analysis the clinical parameters of different organ site metastasis with OS in metastatic NPC patients. 1-2 Checking the pretreatment plasma EBV DNA load and viral clearance rate after treatment in different metastatic site of NPC patients and correlating with their survival. Aim 2: Patient derived xenograft (PDX) study to correlate the results of clinical samples. 2-1 Compare the gene expression profiles of different metastasis sites of human tumors. 2-2 Gene expression profile comparison between the original human tumor and PDX. 2-3 Drug sensitive screening in mice xenograft and correlate with human clinical response. 2-4 Metastasis potential study of PDX. 2-5 Establish different organ site metastasis cancer cell lines. Aim 3: Comparison cellular and plasma protein profile difference in different metastatic site patients. 3-1 Plasma protein expression profile comparison of different metastatic site 3-2 Cellular protein expression profile comparison of different metastatic site

Project ID:PC10308-0653
External Project ID:MOST103-2314-B182-041