Analysis and identification of novel prognostic biomarkers and potential therapeutic targets in lung cancer and mesothelioma

Lung cancer (LC) is one of the most common types of cancer in men and women and the leading cause of cancer related deaths. Even though early diagnosis can increase the life span of a subset of patients, current LC diagnostic methods are ineffective. Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma (MPM) is an aggressive cancer mostly related to exposure to asbestos. Currently, there are no effective treatments for MPM and the prognosis of patients is invariably poor. Moreover, modern targeted therapies that are effective in other tumours, including lung cancer, have failed in MPM portraying this disease as an “orphan disease”.
Over the recent years, multiple biomarkers playing a role in the biology of cancer have been identified. There has also been a rapid development in our knowledge of the immune checkpoint markers and inhibitors of PD1 and PD-L1 have already demonstrated some anti-cancer effect in large clinical trials. Multiple other biomarkers are known from pre-clinical studies to be important in cancer pathogenesis, metabolism, apoptosis, angiogenesis, invasion, progression and metastasis. There is however lack of data about their clinical relevance, mainly for prognosis of the disease, response to treatment and patients outcome. In this study, expression of a selected panel of known biomarkers will be tested in correlation with clinical and pathological features. Molecular biology and immunohistochemistry (IHC) methodologies will be used to determine the expression status of biomarkers including immune checkpoint/response markers, apoptotic and chemoresistance markers and energy metabolism markers. The biomarker expression status will be correlated with clinical parameters to establish their therapeutic relevance. This will help us understand their prognostic relevance and potential for therapeutic targeting.