press release: Adelson Medical Research Foundation Sponsored Research Uses Unique Model System to Identify Effective Drug Combinations to Treat Ovarian Cancer (PI3K/mTOR-pathway inhibitors)

"NEEDHAM, MA--(Marketwire - Feb 13, 2012) - The Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Medical Research Foundation (AMRF), a private foundation funding collaborative translational science programs, announced today a significant publication in the February 14, 2012 issue of the journal Cancer Cell. The paper by AMRF-funded investigators Joan Brugge and lead author Taru Muranen of Harvard Medical School, in collaboration with Gordon Mills of the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, uses a unique three-dimensional cellular model of ovarian cancer to explore mechanisms of resistance to targeted cancer therapies in a more physiological context and more predictably identify effective combinations of drugs to treat ovarian cancer...."

""There are high hopes for the new generation of PI3K/mTOR-pathway inhibitors, but potential resistance to these drugs in epithelial cancers is a concern. Dr. Brugge and her colleagues have developed a powerful three-dimensional model of ovarian tumors that more accurately captures cancer mechanisms such as vascular intravasation and matrix-associated resistance," noted Dr. Kenneth H. Fasman, Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer of AMRF. "Their model reveals that resistance is found only in subpopulations of tumor cells associated with the extracellular matrix, potentially explaining why these drugs are not uniformly effective on all cells in the tumor. This new publication demonstrates an approach to efficiently testing such targeted therapeutics in combination with others in the hope of overcoming this resistance.""