Identification of early events involved in RNA disruption in order to improve its utility as a chemotherapy response and prognostic biomarker

It is not well known that the majority of breast cancer patients do not receive a survival benefit from chemotherapy. Yet, they experience many negative short- and long-term side effects from chemotherapy. This is also the case for other cancers. There is thus a clear, unmet need for a diagnostic tool that can reliably identify chemotherapy nonresponders, so that they can be moved quickly to potentially more beneficial treatments, while sparing the toxicities of the ineffective drugs. We have developed an effective tool (RDA) to assess chemotherapy response in cancer patients, based on the ability of chemotherapy drugs to induce the degradation of ribonucleic acid (RNA) in tumours. This project seeks to better understand the mechanisms by which chemotherapy drugs promote RNA degradation. By identifying earlier events that trigger RNA degradation, we expect to improve our ability to predict chemotherapy response in cancer patients, possibly much earlier after chemotherapy
administration.

Faculty Supervisor:

Carita Lanner

Student:

Partner:

RNA Diagnostics Inc

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Health and Related Sciences & Technology; Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

Laurentian University

Program: