Research Interests

Genomic instability in cancer and treatment methods

Philip Schouten
(Graduate student)

The aim of my studies will be to predict chemo- and targeted therapy benefit based on genomic profiles and to create clinically useful tests to guide treatment choice. BRCA mutated breast cancers have distinct array CGH profiles that distinguish them from each other (BRCA1 and BRCA2) and sporadic cancers (van Beers et al. 2005). In our institute classifiers have been developed that recognize these cancers, as well as sporadic cancers that share CGH profile characteristics (Joosse et al. 2009; Joosse et al. 2010). The underlying defect, homologous recombination deficiency, predisposes these cancers to sensitivity to double strand break inducing chemotherapy, such as high dose platinum containing therapy (Vollebergh et al. 2010). In both retro- and prospective studies we will further investigate properties of these tumors and drugs that target this defect to create clinical tests that will guide treatment choice. Furthermore we will analyze large cohorts of triple negative and lobular breast cancer for prognostic as well as predictive information derived from experiments at the DNA, RNA and protein level.


References

Joosse, S. A., et al.
Prediction of BRCA2-association in hereditary breast carcinomas using array-CGH.
Breast cancer research and treatment (2010).

Joosse, S. A., et al.
Prediction of BRCA1-association in hereditary non-BRCA1/2 breast carcinomas with array-CGH.
Breast cancer research and treatment 116.3 (2009): 479-89.

van Beers, E. H., et al.
Comparative genomic hybridization profiles in human BRCA1 and BRCA2 breast tumors highlight differential sets of genomic aberrations.
Cancer research 65.3 (2005): 822-27.

Vollebergh, M.A., et al.
An aCGH classifier derived from BRCA1-mutated breast cancer and benefit of high-dose platinum-based chemotherapy in HER2-negative breast cancer patients.
Annals of Oncology Dec 6, 2010.