DR-056 The identification and characterization of predictive markers of therapy response in metastatic breast cancer by assessing cell heterogeneity in RNA sequencing data.

The use of molecular pathology (for example DNA-testing) has increasingly allowed the selection of the right treatment for the right patient (personalized medicine). Nonetheless, the majority of anticancer treatments remains not patient-specific. As a result, patients still receive ineffective treatments. A possible explanation for this might be found in the tumoral heterogeneity (ie. the presence of different types of cells). Recently, an computional algorithm (Tumor Cell Deconvolution (TCD)) has been developed in breast cancer patients to assess the cellular heterogeneity of a tumor, for every patient specific. With the TCD, we can identify specific cell types, and can explore whether these specific cell types determine the response to therapy.

Emile Voest NKI/AvL the Netherlands