Technologies

Problem or Unmet Need:
Current treatment modalities for invasive cervical cancer result in largely unpredictable patient response. As a result, there is a pressing need for rational design of predictive biomarkers that can better guide treatment strategies in order to provide safer and more efficacious therapy. Recent advances in genomic and proteomic technologies have shown great promise in identifying biomarkers to enable more advanced diagnosis and allow for personalized therapy to improve clinical outcomes.

This technology details a range of biomarkers that have been identified as being down-regulated in cervical cancer cells by genomic analysis of cervical cancer tissue and cell lines, as well as cytological pap smears. Specifically, these markers are related to the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) receptor superfamily pathway that plays a role in tumor cell apoptosis. It has been shown in vitro that cells with these expression profiles more readily respond to TNF-related apoptosis inducing ligand (TRAIL) therapy. In addition, partial expression patterns were also identified in precancerous cervical lesions, implicating these genes in the early onset of cervical cancer and potentially allowing for these markers to be utilized for early-stage diagnosis. This technology could be used as a targeted method to develop more effective treatment regimens when using TRAIL-agonists.