Ex vivo organotypic cultures for synergistic therapy prioritization identify patient-specific responses to combined MEK and Src inhibition in colorectal cancer

Nancy Gavert, Yaara Zwang, Roi Weiser, Orli Greenberg, Sharon Halperin, Oded Jacobi, Giuseppe Mallel, Oded Sandler, Adi Jacob Berger, Erez Stossel, Daniil Rotin, Albert Grinshpun, Iris Kamer, Jair Barzs, Guy Pines, Daniel Saidian, Ilan Bar, Shay Golan, Eli Rosenbaum, Andrei NaduEytan Ben-Ami, Rony Weitzen, Hovav Nechushtan, Talia Golanz, Baruch Brenner, Aviram Nissan, Ofer Margalitzs, Dov Hershkovitz, Guy Lahat, Ravid Straussman*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

23 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Translating preclinical studies to effective treatment protocols and identifying specific therapeutic responses in individuals with cancer is challenging. This may arise due to the complex genetic makeup of tumor cells and the impact of their multifaceted tumor microenvironment on drug response. To find new clinically relevant drug combinations for colorectal cancer (CRC), we prioritized the top five synergistic combinations from a large in vitro screen for ex vivo testing on 29 freshly resected human CRC tumors and found that only the combination of mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase (MEK) and proto-oncogene tyrosine-protein kinase Src (Src) inhibition was effective when tested ex vivo. Pretreatment phosphorylated Src (pSrc) was identified as a predictive biomarker for MEK and Src inhibition only in the absence of KRASG12 mutations. Overall, we demonstrate the potential of using ex vivo platforms to identify drug combinations and discover MEK and Src dual inhibition as an effective drug combination in a predefined subset of individuals with CRC.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)219-231
Number of pages13
JournalNature Cancer
Volume3
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Feb 2022

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