2020 Collaboration Grant - Dr Sumit Sahni

Project Summary

The project team has access of blood samples from PC patients, which are collected prior to the administration of chemotherapy. This project will focus on the identification of unique proteins in these blood samples, which can predict a patient’s response to chemotherapy. This will lead to the development of a simple blood test for identification of patients for optimal treatment course selection. PC patients with chemotherapy-resistant tumours currently do not have other targeted therapies available to them. The project team has identified a key pathway (i.e., OSM-TGM2) which can be targeted to overcome chemotherapy-resistance in PC patients. This project further aims to perform comprehensive pre-clinical evaluation to determine if inhibition of this pathway, using a novel therapeutic strategy, could overcome chemotherapy resistance in PC patients. Overall, upon successful completion, this project will lead to the development of simple blood-based test for predicting chemotherapy response in PC patients, and also, develop a novel targeted therapy to overcome PC chemo-resistance.