Ovarian Cancer Research Symposium: Stromal Cell Expression and Metastasis
Posted: Friday, October 5, 2018
Many clinicians believe that stromal discoid domain receptor 2 (DDR) expression may play a role in the advancement of metastasis in patients with ovarian cancer. At the 2018 Ovarian Cancer Research Symposium in Seattle, Katherine Fuh, MD, PhD, of Washington School of Medicine in St. Louis, and colleagues presented evidence to support this theory. They found that the stromal contribution of DDR promotes tumor cell clearance of mesothelial cells and metastatic spread. The conference was hosted by The Rivkin Center for Ovarian Cancer and the American Association for Cancer Research.
In total, 111 high-grade serous ovarian cancer specimens were analyzed. The stromal cell contribution of DDR2 for the steps of metastasis were evaluated through mesothelial cell clearance. Mesothelial cell clearance was evaluated by measuring the size of the clearance area.
It was demonstrated that patients with a high expression of stromal cell DDR2 had a median overall survival of 171 months versus patients with a low expression of stromal cell DDR2, who had a median overall survival of 28 months (P < .0001). In addition, mesothelial cell clearance was performed via human peritoneal mesothelial cells (HPMC) versus DDR2 and found to have decreased tumor cell clearance by twofold in the normal omental fibroblasts.
“Our analysis suggests that stromal expression of DDR2 may be a potential target to guide future therapy, particularly in the maintenance setting,” the investigators concluded.
