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Joyce F. Liu, MD, MPH
Joyce F. Liu, MD, MPH
The antioxidant gene and anti-inflammatory pathway NRF2 is expressed in about half of all cases of high-grade serous ovarian cancer. At the 2025 ASCO Annual Meeting, Chelsea Katz, MD, of the MD Anderson Cancer Center, Camden, New Jersey, and colleagues presented the results of their investigation into NRF2-chemotherapy interaction, and how it impacted patients' treatment.
The study used two NRF2-low cell lines and induced expression of NRF2 pathway through the activation of E79Q mutation. The cell lines were treated with either carboplatin or paclitaxel, with differentiation markers and downstream targets evaluated using western blot protein quantification.
Study authors found that NRF2 activation changed the markers of squamous or nonsquamous, growth, immune checkpoint, and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition pathways in both the carboplatin- and paclitaxel-treated cell lines. Treatment with carboplatin or paclitaxel also changed the protein levels. In comparison, in NRF2-high cell lines, study authors observed slower invasion with both carboplatin- and paclitaxel-treated cells compared to untreated cells. These findings indicate that NRF2 expression has an influence on both differentiation pathways and invasive behavior in high-grade serous ovarian cancer cells, and that chemotherapy can cause a response.
Disclosures: For full disclosures of study authors, visit asco.com.
