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- To understand the origin and the tumor evolution of soft-tissue sarcomas in order to better treat them
Soft-tissue sarcomas represent a family of rare cancers characterized by their great clinical and biological heterogeneity. Among them, so-called dedifferentiated liposarcomas are a subgroup of aggressive tumors. They show signs of adipocytic differentiation, in other words, the acquisition of characteristics specific to adipocytes, the cells in charge of lipid synthesis and storage. Â
"These often very large tumors present portions composed of indolent fat cells, associated with areas composed of very aggressive cells responsible for metastatic recurrences. As of today, there is no effective treatment at the advanced stage, " explains Dr. Sarah Watson.
Using single-cell transcriptomic sequencing approaches, as well as complete genome sequencing on a cohort of tumors from patients operated on at Institut Curie, the researchers were able to identify a population of tumor cells related to stem cells present in normal adipose tissue. Liposarcoma cells develop from such cells, which then evolve in parallel with their tumor microenvironment.
By exploiting these data, the researchers then showed that the treatment of liposarcoma cells in vitro, precisely targeting their original cell, makes it possible to restore the differentiation of high-grade cells into indolent fat cells. As a result, tumor aggressiveness and increased risk of metastases could be reduced in these patients. This opens new therapeutic opportunities for the development of cell identity-based treatment of liposarcomas.
Research News
Research
New data on the prognosis of different molecular subtypes of bladder cancer
A team from Institut Curie (CNRS UMR144 / Sorbonne Université), led by Prof. Yves Allory and Drs. Isabelle Bernard-Pierrot and François Radvanyi, has recently shown that outcome after treatment with neoadjuvant chemotherapy differs according to molecular tumor subtype in patients with bladder cancers. These new data, published on September 17, 2024...
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