Targeting Microenvironment Determinants in Peripheral T-cell Lymphoma
Teresa Palomero
PhDColumbia University Medical Center
Project Term: October 1, 2024 - September 30, 2027
Peripheral T-cell lymphomas are highly aggressive blood cancer that have very poor survival rate, highlighting the need for new therapies to improve patient survival. We aim to improve our understanding of the characteristics of the individual cancer cells and their interaction with surrounding cells in the tumor environment with the goal of identifying new drugs that we can validate in preclinical models and move into more efficient treatments for lymphoma patients.
Peripheral T-cell lymphomas (PTCL) are highly aggressive blood cancers with limited response to current therapies and have poor survival, underscoring the need to develop new drugs that have higher efficacy and lower toxicity. PTCL are highly complex tumors, with multiple types of cells, both normal and malignant, creating a favorable environment for the tumor to grow. It is also known that common viral infections are frequently detected in the tumor environment and contribute to the tumor development. So far, there is limited understanding on how the tumor and its surrounding cells behave and interact with each other, and how that influences survival.
We have assembled a team of researchers with expertise in T-cell tumors, novel drugs, computational approaches, and cellular characterization of human lymphomas who have been working together for more than a decade and have successfully contribute to the understanding of human T-cell lymphomas and developed novel preclinical tools.
In this proposal, we will analyze in depth the alterations in the genome in a large group of PTCL patients, their viral infection status, how these events modify the tumor environment, how different populations of cell interact with each other and what are the relevant events that are susceptible to be attacked with novel drugs. We will be using technically advanced approaches and state-of-the-art computational analysis to characterize all individual cells, malignant or not, and define how they interact and cooperate to make the tumor grow.
Our ultimate goal is using that information for identify and validating precision drugs that target tumor cells and/or their supporting network of surrounding cells in the tumor environment. Our group has the tools to validate these drugs in preclinical models and translate our findings into novel treatments that improve the survival of patients with PTCL.