Ex vivo drug screening informed targeted therapy for metastatic parotid squamous cell carcinoma

The purpose of ex vivo drug screening in the context of precision oncology is to serve as a functional diagnostic method for therapy efficacy modeling directly on patient-derived tumor cells. Here, we report a case study using integrated multiomics ex vivo drug screening approach to assess therapy efficacy in a rare metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the parotid gland. Tumor cells isolated from lymph node metastasis and distal subcutaneous metastasis were used for imaging-based single-cell resolution drug screening and reverse-phase protein array-based drug screening assays to inform the treatment strategy after standard therapeutic options had been exhausted. The drug targets discovered on the basis of the ex vivo measured drug efficacy were validated with histopathology, genomic profiling, and in vitro cell biology methods, and targeted treatments with durable clinical responses were achieved. These results demonstrate the use of serial ex vivo drug screening to inform adjuvant therapy options prior to and during treatment and highlight HER2 as a potential therapy target also in metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the salivary glands

Is the discovery of the novel human betacoronavirus 2c EMC/2012 (HCoV-EMC) the beginning of another SARS-like pandemic?

Fouchier et al. reported the isolation and genome sequencing of a novel coronavirus tentatively named " human betacoronavirus 2c EMC/2012 (HCoV-EMC)" from a Saudi patient presenting with pneumonia and renal failure in June 2012. Genome sequencing showed that this virus belongs to the group C species of the genus betacoronavirus and phylogenetically related to the bat coronaviruses HKU4 and HKU5 previously found in lesser bamboo bat and Japanese Pipistrelle bat of Hong Kong respectively. Another patient from Qatar with similar clinical presentation and positive RT-PCR test was reported in September 2012. We compare and contrast the clinical presentation, laboratory diagnosis and management of infection due to this novel coronavirus and that of SARS coronavirus despite the paucity of published information on the former. Since 70% of all emerging infectious pathogens came from animals, the emergence of this novel virus may represent another instance of interspecies jumping of betacoronavirus from animals to human similar to the group A coronavirus OC43 possibly from a bovine source in the 1890s and the group B SARS coronavirus in 2003 from bat to civet and human. Despite the apparently low transmissibility of the virus at this stage, research preparedness against another SARS-like pandemic is an important precautionary strategy. © 2012 The British Infection Association.link_to_subscribed_fulltex